Acquisition of Minority, Greece and Loan Terms

RNS Number : 8508Z

Minoan Group PLC

12 February 2014

 



12 February 2014

Minoan Group Plc

("Minoan" or the "Group" or the "Company")

Acquisition of Minority Interest, Greece and Revision to Loan Terms

The Minoan Board is pleased to announce that, following a review of the Group's businesses and acquisition strategies, it has decided to "buy in" the 20% stake in the Group's Travel and Leisure ("T&L") business, which was sold last year. The Board believes that the acquisition (which is expected to be earnings enhancing) is in shareholders' best interests in that it will enable the Group to pursue a more flexible approach to the acquisition strategy for its T&L business.

The consideration for the 20% stake is £930,000 compared to the initial sale consideration on 31 July 2013 of £770,000, reflecting the growth of the business. The original agreement included a "buy back" arrangement which could have amounted to up to £1.1 million.

As announced in the Trading Update published on 13 December 2013, in the year ended 31 October 2013 ('FY13') the operating profits of the Group's continuing travel businesses will be in excess of £600,000.  The Trading Update also provided FY13 revenue guidance of around £45 million in respect of the continuing travel businesses. As part of the year-end process an amendment has been made to the Company's expectation of reported revenue; FY13 gross revenue is therefore expected to be around £50 million. This change is not expected to impact reported profit.

Greece

On 20 June 2012 the Group announced that The Candia Investment Corporation ("Candia") had agreed to acquire an economic interest of up to 10% in the Project at a price of £2 million payable in tranches.  Candia, together with third parties syndicated into its interest, has completed the first £1 million of this investment and they collectively now have a 5% economic interest in the Project. The remaining provisions of the agreement with Candia as announced remain except that it has been agreed that the remaining tranche of £1 million will become due at such time as the parties determine.      

Revision to Loan Terms

The Company is pleased to announce that it has agreed with certain debt providers to revise the terms of their loan agreements such that a total of approximately £1.2 million can be repayable, at the lenders' choice, in cash or in shares at a price of 8.5p per share. As a consequence, up to a maximum of approximately 14.25 million shares may be issued in settlement of the amount outstanding during the period ended 31 October 2016.

Christopher Egleton, Minoan Chairman, commented

"I am very pleased that we have been able to complete the buy in of the 20% stake in our T&L Business from existing resources and hope to update shareholders with further positive developments for the Group's business in both Greece and the UK in the very near future."

For further information visit www.minoangroup.com or contact:

Minoan Group Plc
Christopher Egleton	[e-mail]
Duncan Wilson	0141 226 2930
Bill Cole	020 8253 4305
WH Ireland Limited	020 7220 1666
Adrian Hadden/Nick Field
Throgmorton Street Capital	020 7071 0808
Forbes Cutler
Morgan Rossiter	020 3195 3240
Richard Morgan Evans/James Rossiter

 

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