ROL.L Regulatory News (ROL)

4 Oct 2006 07:00

Rotala PLC04 October 2006 Press Release4 October 2006 Rotala plc ("Rotala" or "the Company") Placing of new shares to raise £1.58million The board of Rotala is pleased to announce that it has raised approximately£1.58 million (before expenses) in a placing with investors ("the Placing"). Thefunds will enable Rotala to continue with its planned acquisition strategy andwill augment its working capital resources. Details of the Placing Rotala has conditionally placed 79,050,000 new ordinary shares of 1p each ("Ordinary Shares") ("the Placing Shares") at 2.0 pence each ("the Placing Price") to raise £1,581,000 (before expenses). The placing is being arranged byLudgate Investments Limited ("Ludgate") with its clients. Of the total number ofPlacing Shares, 43,296,200 shares have been placed subject only to admission totrading on AIM, which is expected to take place today ("the tranche A shares")and 35,753,800 shares have been placed subject, inter alia, to shareholderapproval to be sought at an EGM ("the tranche B shares"). A letter will beposted to shareholders later today convening an EGM for 27 October 2006. Before the Placing, the issued ordinary share capital amounted to 288,641,027ordinary shares. After admission of all of the Placing Shares the issued sharecapital will be 367,691,027 ordinary shares. The Placing Shares are equivalentto approximately 21.5% of the enlarged ordinary share capital. Certain directors have participated in the Placing to the extent of 31,125,000Placing Shares at the Placing Price, equivalent to a subscription of £622,500.Details of the placing commitments and the interests of the directors and theirconnected persons in the ordinary share capital of the Company as at admissionare set out below: Following the Placing Placing Shares at Shares held % 2.0p per share (excluding options) John Gunn * (1) 23,000,000 75,005,000 20.4Nick Kennedy ** 500,000 3,346,227 0.9Kim Taylor 500,000 500,000 0.1Geoff Flight*** 6,250,000 23,091,667 6.3Simon Dunn 875,000 875,000 0.2 * includes Mrs R. S. Gunn, Wengen Pension Plan and the Gunn Trusts** includes Mr Kennedy's pension fund*** includes Mr Flight's pension fund (1) John Gunn holds his shares through W B Nominees Ltd, as shown below. In addition, as a result of the Placing the Company is aware of the followingpersons (other than the directors and their connected persons set out above) whowill be significant shareholders (being holders (directly or indirectly) of morethan 3 per cent. or more of the Company's issued ordinary share capital): Placing Shares at Following the Placing 2.0p per share Shares held % Capital Management & Trust Co N.V. 12,500,000 12,500,000 3.40A Hughes Esq 7,500,000 17,500,000 4.76W B Nominees Ltd (1) 34,500,000 174,193,908 47.37 (1) includes the holding of John Gunn, as shown above. W B Nominees Ltdacts as bare nominee for underlying shareholders in respect of all the OrdinaryShares registered in its name. W B Nominees Ltd does not exercise any discretionover the said shareholdings or voting rights. As consideration for its services to the Company, Ludgate will receive a fee of5 per cent. of the amount raised by Ludgate in the Placing and a corporateadvisory fee of £15,000. John Gunn, the Non-executive Chairman of Rotala, is ashareholder in Ludgate Investments Ltd. PURPOSE OF THE PLACING Rotala intends that the new funds will be used primarily to financeacquisitions. In the interim results of the group published on 30 August 2006,the board reiterated its opinion that the many small businesses in the bus andcoach operator sector offer significant opportunities to a consolidator such asRotala. This is particularly the case in Birmingham where Rotala completed theacquisition of its 4.5 acre freehold depot in April 2006 for £2.0 million. Thedepot offers considerable scope for expansion. The board is currently seeking toacquire local operators in circumstances where it can quickly achieve economiesof scale by increasing operations from the site and eliminating duplicatedoverheads. The board is therefore in discussions with a number of suchcompanies, and hopes to be able to announce the first such acquisition shortly. The balance of the new funds will be used to augment the working capitalresources available to the Company. Contacts: John Gunn, Chairman Rotala plc 020 7236 6236Kim Taylor, CEO Rotala plc 020 7236 6236 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange