Intention to undertake equity fundraising

RNS Number : 7911W

HICL Infrastructure Company Ld

31 January 2013

 



HICL Infrastructure Company Limited (the "Company")

31 January 2013

Intention to undertake equity fundraising

The Board of HICL Infrastructure Company Limited is pleased to announce that it intends to proceed with a Placing, Open Offer and Offer for Subscription of Ordinary Shares (the "Issue") during the first quarter of this year.

In the Company's announcement of 17 December 2012, it was noted that the Company's ability to issue shares by way of 'tap' has been fully utilised for the time being, and that any further issue of shares on a non-pre-emptive basis would only be permitted following the requisite grant of authority by shareholders at a general meeting of the Company. The pipeline of potential new business remains healthy, and the Company's Investment Adviser is confident that further attractive investment opportunities will arise in the coming months. In light of the Group's current funding requirement of approximately £30m, and in anticipation of further investments being made, it is now the Board's intention to publish a prospectus in relation to the Issue, and to convene a general meeting for the purposes of seeking shareholder approval for the Issue.

As with previous formal equity fundraisings by the Company, the inclusion of an Open Offer will ensure that a portion of the Issue is reserved in the first instance exclusively for existing shareholders. Further details as to the precise timing and quantum of the Issue will be announced in due course. For indicative purposes, however, it is envisaged that a prospectus will be published in February, and that (subject to shareholder approval) the new Ordinary Shares will be issued and commence trading by the end of March. In terms of the size of the Issue, the Board will continue to observe the policy that the Company should not be cash positive to any material extent, and accordingly the Issue will be limited in size to the aggregate of (i) the Group's funding requirements at the time of publication of the prospectus and (ii) the consideration payable for further investments made or expected to be made by the Group (whether on a conditional or unconditional basis).

The Company has typically declared a second interim dividend in April or May of each year. In order to uphold the integrity of the cash cover on the Company's dividend, it is proposed that the record date in respect of the second interim dividend for the financial year ended 31 March 2013 should be brought forward ahead of the date of publication of the prospectus. Accordingly, subscribers for the new Ordinary Shares will not be entitled to this second interim dividend.

A further announcement giving full details of the Issue will be made at the time of publication of the prospectus.

Enquiries:

InfraRed Capital Partners Limited	020 7484 1800
Tony Roper
Keith Pickard
Erwan Fournis
Robin Hubbard
David Foot
Canaccord Genuity Limited
Sales Enquiries
Dominic Waters	020 7523 8473
Neil Brierley	020 7523 8478
Will Barnett	020 7523 8094
Robbie Robertson	020 7523 8474
Gavin Tooke	020 7523 8470
Corporate Enquiries
David Yovichic	020 7523 8361
Lucy Lewis	020 7523 8360
Tulchan Communications	020 7353 4200
Ed Orlebar
Rebecca Scott

 

 

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