OPM.L Regulatory News (OPM)

1PM PLC

(AIM: OPM)

New Funding Line

1pm plc ("1pm" or "the Company"), the specialist provider of lease asset finance to the SME sector, is pleased to announce that it has agreed a new funding line of up to £800,000 ("the Facility"). The Facility has been agreed with Ron Russell, non-executive director, who has an interest in 882,609,050 shares in the Company representing approximately 27.94 per cent. The Facility is exclusively for the purpose of writing new lease contracts.

The Facility provides for the draw down of up to two tranches of £400,000, giving a maximum value of £800,000. Each draw down will be subject to an interest charge of 11 per cent. per annum and is repayable in 48 equal installments. There is no time limit on the availability of the Facility and no fees other than the interest charges. As at the date of this announcement the Company has drawn down £400,000 under the Facility.

This Facility presents the Company with additional scope to lend to new and existing customers and hence to grow its lease portfolio. As previously announced the Company has made a very strong start to the current financial year and has returned to profit in the first quarter. The Company is also pleased to announce that trading continues to be strong with sales in every month since the start of the financial year being in excess of budget. The Company remains profitable on a month on month basis.

Ron Russell is a director of the Company and therefore the agreement of the Facility is classified under the AIM Rules as a related party transaction. The independent directors of 1pm, that is the Directors excluding Ron Russell, having consulted with their nominated adviser, WH Ireland Limited, consider that the terms of this transaction are fair and reasonable insofar as the Company's shareholders are concerned.

Michael Johnson, Chairman of 1pm, commented:

"We are delighted to have agreed this Facility. Our Company's pleasing recent level of sales and our continuing sales growth indicates that the asset finance market may, itself, be returning to growth and we believe that 1pm is well positioned to continue to grow its lease portfolio without compromising our standards. The recurrent challenge is accessing funds to support portfolio growth and to that extent the Facility will provide 1pm with the flexibility and resource to take advantage of the improving opportunities that we are currently seeing."