Highway Capital Regulatory News (HWC)

Highway Capital PLC

Directorate Changes

The purpose of this announcement is to inform shareholders of board changes. 

As many shareholders will be aware, this company has two large shareholders, one representing the equivalent of 29.9% and the other of 28.8%. Shareholders may well have picked up the announcement that the holding of 28.45%, beneficially held by Mr Steven Tucker, has been transferred to Mr Ronald Bruce Rowan, which together with other purchases brought his holding to 29.9%. Likewise the holding of 25.8%, previously held by Mr Andrew Perloff, has been purchased by Mr Maciej Szytko who had previously acquired a 3% shareholding in the company.

It is clear to your Directors and to shareholders that no acquisition aimed at enhancing shareholder value can be completed without the agreement of these two large shareholders. With this in mind your current directors have invited Mr Rowan and Mr Szytko to join the board. We are pleased to inform you that Mr Szytko has accepted our invitation and will accordingly be appointed a non-executive Director today. However Mr Rowan has indicated that he does not wish, at this stage, to join the board of Directors or to appoint a representative. 

Mr Szytko is a Commercial Studies graduate from the University of Westminster. Over the past 6 years, he has held a number of managerial positions in the hospitality industry. He is currently a self-employed adviser and active investor in public and private companies with a focus on the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), where his first financial successes occurred. With his investments Mr Szytko intends to increase foreign investors' interest in the Polish capital market, particularly in investments on the WSE (which is a leader among CIS stock exchanges).

We are also pleased to inform you that Mr Dominic Wheatley, who has a beneficial interest in 4.98% of the issued share capital, has agreed to join the board, effective today, and will be appointed non-executive Chairman. Mr Wheatley was a Director of the Company previously, from 2001 to 2006.

Mr Wheatley founded Bright Things, the company which is now named SocialGO, in September 2004. He served as CEO of the company until 2010, when he became Chairman of SocialGO. Before starting Bright Things, Mr Wheatley had considerable executive management experience in the video games industry. He co-founded Domark in 1984, a video games company that he later reversed into Eidos. In 1992 he established Domark's US subsidiary in California. The company changed its name and Mr Wheatley served as CEO of Eidos Interactive until 1997. He then became an investor in various companies, some of which he joined as a Director and helped float on the London Stock Exchange (Statpro plc, Kuju plc, and Telecom Plus plc). He also has commercial interests in France.

These changes will enable two Directors who have indicated that they wish to retire from the board, namely Mr Andrew Perloff, having disposed of his holdings in the company, and Mr A Howard Drummon, who wishes to retire, to do so. Mr Perloff and Mr Drummon will cease to be Directors as of today's date.

The Directors would like to thank Mr Perloff and Mr Drummon for their services to the company and wish them well in the future.

There is no further information to be disclosed in relation to Mr Szytko and Mr Wheatley pursuant to FSA Listing Rule 9.6.13.

19 September 2011