MGP.L Regulatory News (MGP)

16 May 2006 11:56

Mercury Group PLC16 May 2006 MERCURY GROUP PLC ("Mercury" or "the Company") Issue of Shares Mercury announces the issue and allotment of a total of 6,481,049 new OrdinaryShares of 1.0p each in the share capital of the Company to the vendors ofNavitas Hemway Limited (including certain Directors of Mercury), representingthe final payment of the deferred purchase price as agreed at the time ofacquisition in December 2005. The issue price of the new Ordinary Shares is9.166p per share, representing the average closing price per share on the firstand last Friday of each of the three months prior to the date of allotment. Thedeferred consideration has an aggregate value equal to the net profit of NavitasHemway Limited for the year ended 30 September 2005 and has been calculated inaccordance with the terms of the Navitas Hemway Sale & Purchase Agreement dated3 December 2004, as referred to in the Company's announcement of 3 December2004, details of which were included in the Company's AIM Admission Document ofthe same date. The acquisition of Navitas Hemway was approved by shareholders on29 December 2004. As a result, the beneficial interests of certain Directors have increased as follows: Former Former holding Shares issued Revised Holding as % of holding as % of former as consideration Holding current issued issued share for Navitas share capital capital Hemway David J Williams (Note 1) 4,599,365 4.32% 1,127,119 5,726,484 5.07%Anthony McFarland (Note 2) 2,540,591 2.39% 2,879,855 5,420,374 4.80% These new Ordinary Shares will rank pari passu in all respects with the existingshare capital in the Company. This issue of shares takes the revised number ofshares in issue to 112,975,684. Application has been made for the new OrdinaryShares to be admitted to trading on AIM. It is anticipated that Admission willbecome effective on 19 May 2006. Note 1: Mr Williams' holding is registered in his own name. Note 2: 189,000 of these Ordinary Shares are registered in the name of JTMHoldings Limited, 360,000 are registered in the name of Malvay Limited, and1,800,591 are registered in the name of Paradene Limited. Paradene Limited is the allottee of the 2,879,855 ordinary shares newly issuedby way of deferred consideration for the acquisition of Navitas Hemway. Mr AMcFarland is the sole beneficial owner of Paradene Limited and has a beneficialinterest of 23.78 per cent. in JTM Holdings and Malvay Limited is a wholly ownedsubsidiary of JTM Holdings Limited. Holdings registered in the names of JTM Holdings Limited and Malvay Limited havebeen treated as part of Mr McFarland's notifiable interest in their entirety. The balance of 191,000 Ordinary Shares beneficially held by Mr A McFarland isregistered in his own name. Enquiries : Simon H Michaels Mercury Group plc 020 7422 6585Finance Director Katie Tzouliadis Biddicks 020 7448 1000 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange