Acquisition of Gulf Marble Investments Limited

RNS Number : 6602D

Fox Marble Holdings PLC

11 October 2018

 

 11 October 2018

Fox Marble Holdings plc

("Fox Marble" or the "Company")

Acquisition of Gulf Marble Investments Limited

Fox Marble, the AIM listed company focused on marble quarrying and finishing in Kosovo and the Balkans region is pleased to announce that it has acquired Gulf Marble Investments Limited (Dubai) its joint venture partner based in the Prilep Alpha Quarry in Macedonia, including all the rights attached to that Company.

Under the terms of the original agreement to acquire the Prilep Alpha quarry in Macedonia in 2013, Gulf Marble Investments Limited provided the funds to acquire the license to the site and capital investment amounting to €1.7 million, and then entered into an operating agreement with Fox Marble to operate the quarry.  In compensation Gulf Marble Investments Limited was provided with a royalty amounting to 40% of the gross revenues received from the sale of its block marble from the quarry.  The acquisition of the quarry rights in Prilep Alpha was originally announced on the 4 July 2013.

Through the acquisition of 100% of the share capital of Gulf Marble Investments Limited, Fox Marble will effectively re-acquire all the 40% gross revenue royalty, as well as all the assets and capital equipment held by the entity.

As consideration for the acquisition Fox Marble has issued an Unsecured Convertible Loan Note ("Loan Note") in the amount of €1.785 million.  Under the terms of the Loan Note, the holder may elect to convert at a conversion price of 130% of the 3 month volume weighted average share price.   The Loan Note is repayable from the 1 October 2020.  The Loan Note carries an interest rate of Libor plus 1.5% payable annually in arrears.

Following the issue of the Convertible Loan Note detailed above the Company has a total of £2.85 million Convertible Loan Notes outstanding.

Chris Gilbert, CEO, commented "Our arrangements at the time afforded us the unique opportunity to not only acquire the rights to a white marble quarry containing the world famous white from the Prilep region of Macedonia but to develop the quarry to commercial standards.  Our joint venture partners Gulf Marble have been instrumental in achieving this and we are grateful to them for helping us reach this goal.  We look forward to seeing the benefits of our increased participation in the Prilep Alpha quarry feeding through to the bottom line going forward from our activities in Macedonia"

For more information on Fox Marble please visit www.foxmarble.net or contact:

Fox Marble Holdings plc
Chris Gilbert, Chief Executive Officer	Tel: [phone]
Fiona Hadfield, Finance Director	Tel: [phone]
Brandon Hill Capital (Broker)
Oliver Stansfield	Tel: [phone]
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nomad)
Liam Murray Jo Turner	Tel: [phone]
Yellow Jersey PR (PR & IR)
Georgia Colkin Katie Bairsto	Tel: [phone] Tel: [phone]

Notes to Editors:

Fox Marble (AIM: FOX), is a marble production, processing and distribution company in Kosovo and the Balkans region.  

Its marble products, which includes Illirico Bianco, Illirico Selene, Grigio Argento and are gaining traction globally both to international wholesale companies as well as being supplied directly into luxury residential properties. In the UK these include among others St George's Homes and Capital and Counties Plc's Lillie Square development. In Sydney, Australia Rosso Cait, Alexandrian White and Breccia Paradisea marble have been used in what is expected to be Australia's most expensive residential property. These sales serve to demonstrate the desirability of Fox's premium marble products as the stone of choice in some of the most prestigious and expensive residential developments around the world. 

Fox Marble holds 40 year mining licences for six separate marble quarries with a maiden JORC resource indicating an in-situ valuation of approximately Euro 16.5 billion. Fox has taken three of the six sites into production (the Drini and Maleshevë quarries, both in Kosovo and from the Prilep Quarry in Macedonia) and continues to increase production. Notably, Fox has access to over 300 million cubic metres (over 1bn tons) of premium quality marble.

Marble demand continues to grow with stable pricing, predominantly driven by the construction and real-estate industries, on which Fox is looking to capitalise.

 

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