6 Dec 2010 07:01
ILA GROUP LIMITED
PLACING OF SHARES
Ila Group Limited ("Ila" or the "Company") today announces the conditional placing of 117,000,000 new ordinary shares at 1.2p per share ("Placing Shares"), which will raise £1.4m before expenses ("Placing"). The Placing is conditional upon approval from shareholders at an annual general meeting ("AGM") which will take place on 20th December 2010 at 12:00pm at the offices of BBH London, 60 Kingly Street, London W1B 5DS. The Placing Shares will, on issue, rank equally, in all respects with the existing ordinary shares in issue.
To enable the Company to satisfy the issue of the Placing Shares pursuant to the Placing, and to have some headroom to issue further shares, the Company is seeking to increase its authority to issue new ordinary shares at the AGM. A notice of AGM will be sent to shareholders today and will be available for download from the Company's website at www.ilasecurity.com
The Placing is intended to fund:
- Continued expansion of the Ila brand into international markets in 2011, in particular the key North American market
- Potential acquisition opportunities. A number of possible acquisitions, which would complement Ila's rapidly developing sales and distribution model, are being considered
- Development of the Ila portfolio of products in 2011
- Potential opportunities to invest in new brands alongside branding partner BBH
Simon McGivern, CEO commented.
"We are delighted with the response to the Placing. We have had the continued support from our shareholders in addition to strong interest from new investors. This is a reflection of the potential of the expanded Ila range, both domestically and internationally for 2011 and beyond.
In particular, the Placing will allow development of the tremendous opportunities in the key North American market. With minimal investment to date, a number of major retailers have shown significant interest in Ila's products. In order to capitalise on this, in 2011 we will expand our presence, particularly within sales distribution and brand development, and we aim to secure significant sales across the US next year.
In addition, during 2010, we have gained significant knowledge of the logistics involved, within design, manufacturing, sale and distribution and strongly believe these skills can be applied to other related products and companies.
We have ambitious plans to utilise these skills via acquisition, as the relationships we are forming throughout the World can be leveraged to create major new revenue streams.
The funds from the Placing will allow us to meet these challenges and should take Ila to the next level of its development into a major new retail brand."
Application will be made for the Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and it is expected that admission will become effective on 21 December 2010. Following admission of the Placing Shares, the total number of issued ordinary shares in the Company will be 684,611,968. The Company does not hold any ordinary shares in treasury and therefore this figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the Financial Service Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.
For further information, please see www.ilasecurity.com or contact:
Ila Group Limited 020 7501 1050
Simon McGivern, Chief Executive Officer
Paul Gazzard, Chief Operating Officer
finnCap 020 7600 1658
Ed Frisby/Ben Thompson - corporate finance
Joanna Weaving - corporate broking
Lothbury Financial Services 020 7868 2010
Gary Middleton
Simon Astley