Parkmead Regulatory News (PMG)

2 Mar 2006 07:01

Interregnum PLC02 March 2006 Embargoed until 0700hrs 2 March 2006 Interregnum plc Chairman and Founder to Step Down Following Proposed Sale of Portfolio Companies The Board of Interregnum plc (the 'Company'), the merchant bank, announces todaythat it has conditionally agreed to sell a portfolio of assets ('the portfoliocompanies') to funds advised by Greenpark Capital Limited for a consideration of£5 million in cash before transaction costs. The transaction also givesInterregnum potential deferred consideration in the form of a share in profitsgenerated from the sale of the companies in the future. Following the sale of the portfolio companies, Ken Olisa, the Non ExecutiveChairman of Interregnum, has decided to step down from the Board with immediateeffect. Existing Non-Executive Director Colin Goodall, will become Non-ExecutiveChairman in his place. Ken Olisa founded Interregnum plc in 1992 and is leaving to pursue otherbusiness interests. He remains a Non-Executive Director of Reuters plc, OpenText Inc and BioWisdom Ltd. Ken Olisa said, 'We have been through a number of cycles during the lastfourteen years at Interregnum, and it is a fact that we are one of the veryfew technology houses that has survived the immense challenges the industry hasfaced since the height of the "dotcom" boom in 1999 - an achievement of whichI am very proud. However, it was clear to me by the end of last year that achange of strategic direction was required, as was a fresh approach to themanagement of the company. I regard the restructuring we have initiated andrecently announced, culminating in the sale of the portfolio today, to representthe end of one chapter and the beginning of another as Interregnum broadens itsfocus beyond technology alone. I am therefore delighted to be leaving the firmin the very capable hands of our new CEO - Niall Doran. I wish him and the teamevery success, not least because I remain a substantial shareholder." Niall Doran, Chief Executive of Interregnum said: 'Ken and Interregnum havebecome something of a legend within the technology sector and I am enormouslygrateful to him for the support and counsel that he has provided to me since Ijoined the company in 2004. He will be a tough act to follow as we drive thenewly combined Quayside and Interregnum forward.' Details of the Portfolio Sale The key Portfolio Companies are: Adaptive IncAudio Visual Machines LtdFuture RouteOilcatsMetapraxis LtdRed-M Group LtdRespond Group LtdYospace Technologies Ltd The sale of these assets forms part of the Group restructuring plan, set out bythe Board in January 2006, aimed at improving further Interregnum's investmentand deal origination and reducing costs. The results of Yospace Technologies Ltd and Audio Visual Machines Ltd areincluded in the Interregnum consolidated financial statements for the twelvemonths ended 30 June 2005. During this period they generated a loss beforeinterest and tax of £0.4 million on turnover of £3.1 million. The portfoliocompanies had a book value of £6.7m as at 30 June 2005. Together with the £10m proceeds from the recent institutional placing the netproceeds of the sale will be used to expand our principal finance and syndicatedfinance investment activities. The disposal of the Portfolio Companies is conditional upon the approval ofshareholders at an extraordinary general meeting of the Company ("EGM"). Acircular to shareholders convening the EGM and containing further details of thesale will be sent to shareholders shortly. Ends Enquiries to: Niall DoranChief ExecutiveInterregnum plc 020 7494 3080 Ken OlisaFounderInterregnum plc 0207 494 3080 Madano PartnershipPR advisors to InterregnumMatthew Moth/Toby Wilkinson 0207 593 4000 Notes to editors: Further information on the portfolio companies is set out below: Respond Respond is a software company which helps companies and government bodiesdeliver customer service excellence and regulatory compliance, through theimplementation of customer complaint handling and feedback. Respond is nowrecognised as the leader in its field, with more than 40,000 users of itssoftware in over 800 organisations. Audio Visual Machines AVM, established in 1990, is an audio visual solutions provider. The companydesigns, supplies, programs and supports complex audio visual systems rangingfrom boardroom presentation systems to IP-based video conferencing networks.Acquired VMC from Unique group in Oct 05. Yospace Yospace provides multimedia messaging, personal storage and handset simulationsoftware and services to the mobile communications industry. Yospace clientsinclude over 1,500 mobile development companies, internet portals and mobileoperators such as Vodafone, O2, Orange and 3. Red-M Red-M Group (formed from the merger of CDS and Red-M Communications) is asoftware products and services provider focusing on wireless, with uniqueintellectual property relevant to wireless infrastructure and security. Adaptive Adaptive is a web-based enterprise architecture knowledge repository solutionprovider. Their products and services enable organisations to maximise the valueof their enterprise architecture initiatives, through exceptionally capable andfeature-rich support for the full scope of Enterprise Architecture planning andimplementation. By providing a "big picture" view - and with their uniquecapability to leverage disparate data sources into a holistic, secure enterprisearchitecture framework - Adaptive provides management, in both business and IT,with the ability to plan, organise, lead and monitor change in a much morerigorous and effective manner. Future Route Future Route commercialises machine learning technologies for automatic rulesgeneration, pattern detection & accurate data modelling. Future Route's productsfocus on fraud detection and automatic rules generation for fraud managementsystems. Future Route's Machine Learning Predictive technology is called iHexTM.The iHexTM multi-component architecture intelligently detects and learns aboutpatterns in aggregated and relational data sources. iHexTM machine learningsystems can be embedded into existing software applications and provided viahosted web application services. Metapraxis Metapraxis is an international management consultancy and software groupspecialising in Business Performance Visualisation. Their Consulting ServicesDivision engages in consulting projects with multinational client corporationswith annual sales revenues normally in excess of $500m. Oilcats Oilcats is a company providing content management solutions (cleansing,classification, enrichment for structured product data) to the Energy sectorglobally. Clients include leading Oil companies. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange