Issue of Equity and Trading Update

RNS Number : 1702I

Strat Aero PLC

25 August 2016

 

Strat Aero plc / Index: AIM / TIDM: AERO / Sector: Support Services

25 August 2016

Strat Aero plc ("Strat Aero", the "Company" or the "Group")

Issue of Equity and Trading Update

Strat Aero plc, an international aerospace company focused on the rapidly emerging Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ("UAV") sector, is pleased to announce that it has successfully raised £370,000 (before expenses) by way of a placing ("the Placing") of 74,000,000 new ordinary shares of 0.1p each ("Ordinary Shares") ("Placing Shares") at a price of 0.5p per ordinary share ("Placing Price").    

This capital will be used as working capital, to fund ongoing litigation and to expedite the continued development of the Company's integrated UAV offering, which covers all aspects of the value chain including the provision of hardware, software, and data analysis services.

The Company has experienced an encouraging trading period during which unaudited consolidated revenues for the Group for the six months to the end of June 2016 were approximately USD410,000 and with recurring revenues from Geocurve continuing to grow, the Company expects to show continued progress is the seasonally more active second half of the year.  Further revenue growth can also be expected from its commercial training activities, following the award of National Qualified Entity ("NQE") status by the Civil Aviation Authority ("CAA") alongside the agreement with Limkokwing University of Creative Technology ("LKW") to roll-out its UAV services to the Malaysian market, further revenue growth.

The Company continues to make positive progress with its surveying and wind turbine inspection offering and continues to focus on its costs base to reduce overheads and optimise performance.  In the industry overall, the contractual take up of UAV Services remains behind analyst expectations however there are positive signs that the adoption of UAV technology is becoming more acceptable to mainstream business. The Company's unaudited cash position at the end of June was approximately USD 286,000.

Graham Peck, Chairman of Strat Aero, said, "We continue to make positive strides in the development of our UAV service offering and this funding, which follows the roll-out of our UAV training services into the Asian market as well as our newly granted National Qualified Entity status by the CAA, will help to strengthen our position as we continue to capitalise on new growth opportunities.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank our long-standing shareholders who continue to demonstrate their support and we remain confident we will be able to continue to develop Strat Aero into the first choice of UAV enabled technology services to the commercial, educational and military sectors."

Details of the Placing

Application will be made for 74,000,000 of the Placing shares, which will rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares in the Company, to be admitted to trading on AIM ('Admission').  It is expected that Admission will become effective and dealings will commence at 7:00 a.m. on 1 September 2016. 

Share Capital and Total Voting Rights

Following the issue of the Placing Shares, the issued share capital of the Company will consist of 336,106,046 Ordinary Shares.  No shares were held in treasury at the date of this announcement.  The total current voting rights in the Company are therefore 336,106,046.

The total current voting rights number of 336,106,046 Ordinary Shares is the figure which may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculation by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in the Company.

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For further information please visit www.strat-aero.com or contact:

Strat Aero plc	Tel: [phone]
Graham Peck (Chairman)
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP	Tel: [phone]
Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker
Stuart Gledhill Jeff Keating
Beaufort Securities Limited	Tel: [phone]
Joint Broker
Elliot Hance
Cornhill Capital Ltd
Joint Broker
Colin Rowbury	Tel: [phone]
St Brides Partners Ltd	Tel: [phone]
Financial PR Frank Buhagiar Susie Geliher

Notes

Strat Aero plc is a multi-divisional international aerospace services company, focussed primarily on the provision of complete client solutions in the Unmanned Aerial System ('UAS' market), which is predicted to show exponential growth over the coming decade.  Commercial and military applications in UASs are expected to be a dynamic growth sector in the aerospace industry over the next 10 years with the UAS market forecast to grow to more than US$82.1 billion between 2015 and 2025 (AUVSI Economic Report 2013) and the global airborne Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance ('ISR') market estimated to grow to US$19.23 billion by 2023. 

 

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