Parity Regulatory News (PTY)

30 Jan 2006 10:28

Spearhead Limited Inc.30 January 2006 Stock Exchange Announcement For immediate release 30th January 2006 Spearhead Limited, Inc. ("Spearhead") Re.: Parity Group PLC ("Parity") The following announcement is a duplicate of the announcement released bySpearhead to the Regulatory News Service at 5.28 p.m. on Friday 27th January2006 under RNS number 5936X: Spearhead refers to the announcement made yesterday by Parity in connection withthe notification received from Dominick Company AG ("the Bank") and confirmsthat, via its legal relationship with Caltrande Financial Services Ltd. ("Caltrande"), a special purpose vehicle created to assist Spearhead in itscorporate objectives, it remains interested in 67,438,936 shares in Parity ("theParity Shares"). According to a letter dated 25th January 2006 sent to Parity by Richards Butler,lawyers acting on behalf of the Bank, security over the Parity Shares was givenby virtue of a pledge that was granted to the Bank by one of its customers,which the Board of Spearhead believes to be Caltrande ("the Pledge"), to securethe financial facilities made available to that customer through which theParity Shares were acquired. In the announcement made on the RNS of the London Stock Exchange yesterday, theBank stated that the Pledge "provides among other things, that in the event ofnon-payment of the financial facilities on the agreed date, the Bank, may if itso chooses, require the (Parity) Shares to be transferred to it. Whilerepayment has not occurred, the Bank has not yet taken any decision on whetherto exercise this right." Pending any such action, and for the avoidance of doubt, Spearhead retains thevoting rights attached to the Parity Shares. In the view of the Board of Spearhead, Spearhead is not a party to the financialfacilities between the Bank and its customer and therefore considers that theBank has no recourse against Spearhead. Spearhead has a security interest over all of the Parity Shares by virtue of aseparate pledge dated 15th August 2005 granted to Spearhead by Caltrande tosecure the financial facilities made available by Spearhead to Caltrande at thetime of the acquisition of the Parity Shares. -End- This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange