Exercise of Warrants

RNS Number : 9199P

LMS Capital PLC

01 June 2018

 

1 June 2018

LMS Capital plc ("LMS" or "the Company")

Exercise of warrants to acquire shares in Gresham House PLC ("Gresham")

The Company has exercised its 909,908 warrants to acquire shares in Gresham. The warrants had an exercise date of no later than 30 June 2018, and an exercise price of 323.27p per Gresham share.

The company has retained 182,344 of the shares acquired on exercising the warrants and has sold 727,564 shares at a price of 420p per share.

In determining the number of shares to be retained or sold, the Company sought to hold a 5% interest in the share capital based on shares in issue by Gresham immediately following its recent acquisition. Gresham has further warrants outstanding which will dilute the Company's holding as and when exercised.

The shares retained from the warrant exercise, together with the shares in Gresham it already held, brings the Company's holding in Gresham to 984,329 shares (4.97% of the current issued share capital).

Background

As part of the arrangements in August 2016, whereby Gresham House Asset Management was appointed to manage the Company's portfolio, the Company agreed that, to increase alignment between the Company and the manager, it would invest up to £1.5 million to acquire shares and warrants in Gresham in order to allow the Company's shareholders to benefit from any accretion in value to Gresham.

The Company fulfilled its £1.5 million investment target through the acquisition of shares in the market and the purchase of 909,908 warrants issued by Gresham. The warrants were issued at a price of 28p each, had an exercise date of no later than 30 June 2018, and an exercise price of 323.27p per share. All the warrants have been exercised.

Impact on cash and net asset value at 31 March 2018

The exercise cost of the 909,908 warrants was £2.94 million. Net proceeds from the sale of 727,564 shares was £3.05 million.

At 31 March 2018, the Gresham shares then held by the Company and the unexercised warrants were valued at £4 million based on a Gresham share price of 408p per share at that date.

Following the warrant exercise and retention of 182,344 of the shares acquired, the Company holds 984,289 Gresham shares the value of which, based on Gresham's closing share price of 443p per share on 31 May 2018, is £4.36 million. This is an increase of £0.36 million on the 31 March 2018 value. In addition, net cash increased by £0.11 million as a result of the proceeds from the 727,564 shares sold, more than offsetting the cost of exercising all the warrants and retaining shares to increase the Gresham holding.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

For further information please contact:   

LMS Capital PLC                                                                                                          020 3837 6275

Martin Knight, Chairman

Gresham House Asset Management

Graham Bird, Investment Director                                                                           020 3837 6275

J.P. Morgan Cazenove

Michael Wentworth-Stanley                                                                                     0207 742 4000

 

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