Completion of Acquisition

RNS Number : 8107Z

Future PLC

05 September 2018

 

5 September 2018

Future plc

Completion of acquisition of the B2C business of Purch 

Future plc, the global platform for specialist media, announces that the acquisition of the B2C business of Purch Inc. is now complete.

Zillah Byng-Thorne, Future plc's Chief Executive said:

"This acquisition substantially strengthens Future's presence in the US market, boosting our scale and momentum while further diversifying our revenue streams. Purch B2C's leading brands also give us market leadership in the highly attractive consumer technology market.

"In addition, its data driven content model is highly complementary to our existing capabilities and will accelerate our progress as we continue to build our global platform for specialist media." 

Enquiries: 

Future plc via Instinctif Partners Zillah Byng-Thorne, Chief Executive Officer Dom Del Mar, Investor Relations  Numis Securities Limited (Financial Adviser, Joint Bookrunner and Joint Broker to Future) 020 7260 1000 Nick Westlake, Mark Lander, Hugo Rubinstein, Toby Adcock Nplus1 Singer Capital Markets Limited (Joint Bookrunner and Joint Broker to Future) 020 7496 3000 Mark Taylor, James White Instinctif Partners 020 7427 1412 Kay Larsen, Hannah Campbell

Directors' shareholdings following completion of the Rights Issue and Acquisition

Following completion of the Rights Issue and Acquisition, the holdings of each of the Directors in the Ordinary Shares of the Company following their acquisition of New Ordinary Shares pursuant to the Rights Issue (and aggregated with those of their closely associated persons) are detailed in the following table:

Director/PDMR	No. of Ordinary Shares pre-Rights Issue	New Ordinary Shares taken up	No. of Ordinary Shares post-Rights Issue
Richard Huntingford1	Nil	10,500	24,500
Zillah Byng-Thorne2,3	142,559	131,811	274,370
Penny Ladkin-Brand4	70,295	52,720	123,015
Alan Newman5	Nil	3,750	8,750
James Hanbury6	45,436	23,502	68,938

(1)   Richard Huntingford purchased 14,000 shares on 18 July 2018 following the launch of the Rights Issue. Further details are contained in the announcement published by the Company on 20 July 2018

(2)   Zillah Byng-Thorne elected to take up 83.5% of her rights, and sold a total of 17,607 nil paid rights. Further details are contained in the announcements published by the Company on 8 August and 17 August 2018

(3)   Max Thorne, a person closely associated with Zillah Byng-Thorne, held nil Ordinary Shares prior to the Rights Issue, acquired 42,500 nil paid rights and now holds 42,500 Ordinary Shares. Further details are contained in the announcement published by the Company on 17 August 2018

(4)   Mark Brand, a person closely associated with Penny Ladkin-Brand, held 7,955 Ordinary Shares prior to the Rights Issue and now holds 13,921 Ordinary Shares

(5)   Alan Newman purchased 5,000 shares on 20 July 2018 following the launch of the Rights Issue. Further details are contained in the announcement published by the Company on 23 July 2018

(6)   The announcement of 23 August erroneously set out that James Hanbury had acquired 34,077 Ordinary Shares pursuant to the Rights Issue and this has been corrected in the table above

An amended notification below , made pursuant to Article 19(3) of the Market Abuse Regulation, provides further details of James Hanbury's shareholding:

1	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated
a)	Name	James Hanbury
2	Reason for the notification
a)	Position/status	Non-executive director
b)	Initial notification /Amendment	Amendment
3	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name	Future plc
b)	LEI	213800K2581YRLEXV353
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 Identification code		Ordinary shares of 15p each GB00BYZN9041
b)	Nature of the transaction	Acquisition of ordinary shares pursuant to the take up of nil paid rights following completion of the Rights Issue
c)	Price(s) and volume(s)	Price(s) Volume(s) £3.03 per share 23,502
d)	Aggregated information - Aggregated volume  - Price	23,502 ordinary shares £71,211.06
e)	Date of the transaction	21/08/2018
f)	Place of the transaction	London Stock Exchange (XLON)

About Future:

The Media division focuses on being at the forefront of digital innovation with three complementary revenue streams: e-commerce, events and digital advertising. It operates in a number of sectors including the high growth technology and games markets and has a number of leading brands including Techradar, Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, Space.com, PC Gamer, GamesRadar+, The Photography Show, Generate and Golden Joysticks.

The Magazine division focuses on publishing specialist content, with 86 publications and over 440 bookazines published per year, and a total global circulation of over one million. The Magazine portfolio spans technology, games and entertainment, music, creative and photography, hobbies (which includes knowledge, outdoor leisure and field sports) and home interest. Its titles include Classic Rock, Total Film, How It Works, Digital Camera, Homebuilding & Renovating and All About History. It holds market leading positions in the UK in creative and photography, music, games and home renovation.

 

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