1Spatial Holdings Regulatory News (SPA)

2 Feb 2009 09:14



2 February 2009

To be embargoed for release at 8:01 a.m.

Avisen plc

 ("Avisen" or "the Company")

(formerly Z GROUP plc)

Admission to trading on AIM

Further to the announcements made on 7 January 2009 and 30 January 2009, the Company has today completed the acquisition of Avisen Group Limited which was satisfied by the issue of 86,666,667 new ordinary shares in the capital of the Company. The enlarged issued share capital following the transaction was admitted to trading on AIM at 8.00 a.m. this morning with ticker AVI. The Company has 110,412,546 ordinary voting shares admitted to trading on AIM. The legal name of the Company has been changed to Avisen plc with immediate effect.

Avisen provides strategic consultancy and software distribution services in the corporate performance management market. Further information on Avisen and its business is set out below.

Board changes

Following admission, Marcus Hanke, Andrew Turner, Louis Peacock and Keith Jones have been appointed to the board and Ian Smith has resigned from the board. All appointments and the resignation take effect immediately.

Jon Claydon remains Non-Executive Chairman of the Company. In addition, Marcus Yeoman remains a Non-Executive Director and Duncan Neale remains as Finance Director. Marcus Hanke, Andrew Turner, Louis Peacock and Keith Jones have each joined the board. Marcus Hanke has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer. Andrew Turner, Louis Peacock and Keith Jones have each become executive Directors. Mr Turner is responsible for software distribution, Mr Peacock is responsible for European sales and operations and Mr Jones is responsible for African, Middle Eastern and Asian sales and operations.

Brief details on the new directors are set out below:

Marcus Hanke (aged 37), Chief Executive Officer

Marcus Hanke began his career at Price Waterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers). He qualified as a chartered management accountant and has since worked in industry with Compass Group Plc and consulting with KPMG and Deloitte. In 2003, he formed an independent Performance Management company which was subsequently acquired by Cognos Inc. in 2004. In 2006, Mr Hanke joined Avisen as Managing Partner and has led the growth of the services business and the diversification into software distribution.

Over the last 10 years Mr Hanke has led several corporate Performance Management programs rolled out in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and has advised some global software application vendors in this area. He specialises in corporate performance management, Value-based Management and the technology enablement of these processes.

Andrew Turner (aged 42), Director

Andrew Turner has over 18 years experience working with Global 2000 organisations, software authors and leading consulting organisations. In his previous role as chief operating officer of Tesco Mobile and as retail operations director, Tesco Telecoms, he was part of the founding team of the new telecoms business unit within Tesco plc from 2003. Prior to telecoms, he spent a number of years in marketing and operations roles within Tesco's financial services joint venture with Royal Bank of Scotland plc.

Prior to Tesco, he worked for MPS Group (NYSE:MPS) as operations director, where he was involved in driving the growth of their e-Business consulting organisation: Idea Integration. Mr Turner has also held senior marketing, product management and sales positions with SAP from 1997 to 1998 and worked with General Electric from 1993 to 1997 across their industrial and services businesses in information management and business change roles in UK and Europe.

Louis Peacock (aged 38), Director

Louis Peacock was born in South Africa where he qualified as a chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen before moving to the UK in 1996. He has 15 years of commercial, enterprise resource planning ("ERP") systems implementation, corporate performance management and business process re-engineering experience, the majority of this being with Maconomy A.S., the ERP software vendor which is listed in Copenhagen. Prior to joining Avisen, Mr Peacock was managing director of Solution Minds (UK) Ltd, a planning and business intelligence solutions business. Solution Minds (UK) Ltd was acquired by Avisen in January 2008.

Keith Jones (aged 44), Director

Keith Jones is a South African citizen and has over 20 years experience in the IT industry and more than 10 years in the Performance Management market. He has worked across Europe with clients including JP Morgan Chase and UBS before returning to South Africa to co-found Harvey Jones Systems (Proprietary) Limited in 1997.  Mr Jones grew the Harvey Jones business to be an international and award winning company which achieved recognition globally with Microsoft prior to its acquisition by Avisen in 2008.

Further information relating to Messrs Hanke, Turner, Peacock and Jones, as required under schedule 2 of the AIM Rule for Companies, is set out below in the section entitled "Additional Information".

Enquiries:

Background information on Avisen

Avisen is a business and technology consultancy specialising in performance management with a focus on strategy creation, development and implementation. It provides advisory services and software distribution of solutions in the corporate performance management market. Avisen aims to provide specialist advice to enable organisations to build more effective capabilities in order to manage the performance of their business and allow them to achieve their desired targets. The solutions and advice provided by Avisen are used to assist clients in a number of areas including development and implementation of improved business strategies, profitability management and cost reduction services and business or corporate performance management.

Additional information

Under Schedule 2, paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules, the following information is disclosed:

Directorships held by Messrs Hanke, Turner, Peacock and Jones in the past five years:

Directorships

Interests of Messrs Hanke, Turner, Peacock and Jones and their connected persons in the share capital of the Company:

(1) These Ordinary Shares are held in the name of Strand Nominees Limited

(2) These Ordinary Shares are held by Keith Jones' partner, Odette McMahon

Messrs Hanke, Turner, Peacock and Jones have confirmed there is no additional information under schedule 2, paragraph (g) of the AIM rules which needs to be disclosed.