Offer Update

19 Mar 2008 12:01

Lighthouse Group PLC19 March 2008 19 March 2008 Not for release, publication or distribution, in whole or in part, in or into orfrom any jurisdiction where to do so would constitute a violation of therelevant laws of such jurisdiction Merger of Lighthouse Group plc and Sumus Plc Update on irrevocable undertakings On 11 March 2008 Lighthouse announced that the boards of Sumus and Lighthousehad agreed the terms of a merger between Sumus and Lighthouse whereby Lighthousewould acquire, for shares and cash, the entire issued and to be issued sharecapital of Sumus. Lighthouse now announces that it has received additional irrevocableundertakings from certain other Lighthouse Shareholders who are togetherinterested in a total of 9,923,890 Lighthouse Shares, representing approximately11.85 per cent. of the existing issued share capital of Lighthouse, to vote (orprocure the vote of) such Lighthouse Shares in favour of the Lighthouse SchemeResolution to be proposed at the Lighthouse General Meeting. All suchirrevocable undertakings will remain binding even if a higher competing offer ismade for Sumus. A summary of these irrevocable undertakings is set out below. Name of Lighthouse Shareholder Number of Lighthouse Shares ingiving irrevocable undertaking to respect of which undertakings givenvote (or procure the vote) in favour of the Lighthouse Resolutions Skandia Life Assurance (Holdings) Limited 3,333,334Aegon UK plc 3,257,222Norwich Union Life Investment Partnership 3,333,334 Total 9,923,890 As announced on 11 March 2008, Lighthouse had already received irrevocableundertakings from the Lighthouse Directors and certain other LighthouseShareholders in respect of, in aggregate, 32,594,444 Lighthouse Shares,representing, in aggregate, approximately 38.93 per cent. of Lighthouse'sexisting issued share capital to vote (or procure or use reasonable endeavoursto procure the vote) of such Lighthouse Shares in favour of the LighthouseScheme Resolution to be proposed at the Lighthouse General Meeting. Accordingly, Lighthouse has now received irrevocable undertakings in respect of,in aggregate, 42,518,334 Lighthouse Shares, representing, in aggregate,approximately 50.79 per cent. of Lighthouse's existing issued share capital tovote (or procure or use reasonable endeavours to procure the vote) of suchLighthouse Shares in favour of the Lighthouse Scheme Resolution to be proposedat the Lighthouse General Meeting. This announcement is made in accordance with Rule 8 of the City Code. Enquiries Lighthouse Group plc 020 7065 5640David Hickey, Executive ChairmanMalcolm Streatfield, Chief Executive Officer www.lighthousegroup.plc.uk Daniel Stewart & Company plc (Financial adviser to Lighthouse) 020 7776 6550Lindsay Mair/Stewart Dick www.danielstewart.co.uk Abchurch Communications (Financial PR adviser to Lighthouse) 020 7398 7700Heather Salmond 020 7398 7704Gareth Mead 020 7398 7710Joanne Shears 020 7398 7709 www.abchurch-group.com References to Lighthouse's existing issued share capital for the purposes ofrule 2.10 of the City Code are based on the announcement made by Lighthouse on12 March 2008 which stated that for the purposes of rule 2.10 of the City Codeon Takeovers and Mergers there are 83,718,751 ordinary shares in issue. Terms herein have the same meaning as in the Rule 2.5 announcement dated 11March 2008, save where the context otherwise requires. The Lighthouse Directors accept responsibility for the information contained inthis announcement. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the LighthouseDirectors (who have taken all reasonable care to ensure that such is the case)the information contained in this announcement for which they are responsible isin accordance with the facts and does not omit anything likely to affect theimport of such information. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange