Purchase of own shares and PDMR Dealing

RNS Number : 8668J

EKF Diagnostics Holdings PLC

07 December 2018

 

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc

("EKF" or the "Company")

Purchase of own shares and PDMR Dealing

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc (AIM: EKF), the AIM listed medical diagnostics business, announces an update in relation to its previously announced Buy-Back. The Company confirms that, on 7 December 2018, it purchased 1,070,539 of its ordinary shares on the London Stock Exchange at a price of 27.00 pence per share. The purchased shares will be cancelled.

Aggregated information:

Date of purchase:	7 December 2018
Issuer name:	EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc
ISIN:	GB0031509804
Number of ordinary shares purchased:	1,070,539
Volume weighted average price paid per share:	27.00 pence
Trading venue	London Stock Exchange - AIMX

Transaction details:

In accordance with Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (the Market Abuse Regulation), a full breakdown of the individual trades made by N+1 Singer on behalf of the Company as part of the Buy-Back programme is detailed below:

Number of shares purchased	Transaction price (GBp)	Time of transaction	Trading venue
500,000	27.00	08:15:37	AIMX
250,000	27.00	08:24:17	AIMX
320,539	27.00	11:13:30	AIMX

Total Voting Rights

Following the cancellation, the Company's total issued share capital will consist of 454,093,227 shares of 1 pence each ("Ordinary Shares") with one voting right per share. The Company will not hold any Ordinary Shares in treasury. Therefore, the total number of voting rights in the Company will be 454,093,227.

The above figure of 454,093,227 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

PDMR dealing

As part of the Buy-Back and within the above aggregate purchase, EKF acquired 320,539 ordinary shares at a price of 27.00 pence per share from Harwood Capital LLP ("Harwood") as investment manager to Oryx International Growth Fund Limited ("Oryx"). Christopher Mills, the Company's Non-Executive Chairman, is a partner and Chief Investment Officer of Harwood and a director and shareholder in Oryx.  As stated in the announcement of 14 November, Harwood has facilitated this transaction solely in order to ensure that the aggregate indirect beneficial interest of Mr. Mills remains at approximately the same level and in any event does not exceed 30% of the prevailing total voting rights in the Company following any repurchases.

Following the above sale of ordinary shares by Oryx to the Company, Mr. Mills' aggregate indirect interest in the Company is 135,963,593 ordinary shares, representing 29.94 per cent. of the total voting rights in EKF. 37,963,591 of these shares are held by Oryx and 98,000,000 by North Atlantic Smaller Companies Investment Trust PLC ("NASCIT"), an investment trust to which Harwood acts as an investment adviser and of which Christopher Mills is a director and shareholder.

Additional disclosures relating to this PDMR dealing are detailed below.

For further information please contact:

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc	Tel: [phone]
Christopher Mills, Non-Executive Chairman
Julian Baines, CEO
Richard Evans, FD & COO
N+1 Singer (Nominated Adviser & Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Aubrey Powell / Lauren Kettle / George Tzimas (Corporate Finance)
Tom Salvesen / Ross Penney (Corporate Broking)

Walbrook PR Limited	Tel: [phone] or [e-mail]
Paul McManus / Lianne Cawthorne	Mobile: [phone]

About EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc                                                                           www.ekfdiagnostics.com

EKF is a leading point-of-care diagnostics and central laboratory assay manufacturer with an estimated 80,000 hemoglobin, hematocrit, HbA1c, glucose and lactate analyzers in regular use across more than 100 countries. EKF specializes in developing tests for use in anemia and diabetes diagnosis and management, as well as providing a portfolio of reagents for use in clinical chemistry analyzers.

Notification and public disclosure of transactions by persons discharging managerial responsibilities and persons closely associated with them

1	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated
a)	Name	Harwood Capital LLP, as investment manager to Oryx International Growth Fund Limited ("Oryx")
2	Reason for the notification
a)	Position/status	Christopher Mills, the Company's Non-Executive Chairman, is a partner and Chief Investment Officer of Harwood Capital LLP and a director and shareholder in Oryx
b)	Initial notification /Amendment	Initial notification
3	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name	EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc
b)	LEI	213800DXTF3EAUK1AR05
4	Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted
a)	Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument	Ordinary shares of 1 pence each
	Identification code	ISIN Code: GB0031509804
b)	Nature of the transaction	Sale of shares
c)	Price(s) and volume(s)
			Price(s)	Volume(s)
			27.00 pence	320,539
d)	Aggregated information	n/a
	- Aggregated volume
	- Price
e)	Date of the transaction	7 December 2018
f)	Place of the transaction	London Stock Exchange - AIMX

 

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