Issue of shares

RNS Number : 6566T

Smart Metering Systems PLC

31 March 2016

 

31 March 2016

Smart Metering Systems plc

("SMS" or "the Company")

Issue of shares

Smart Metering Systems plc (AIM: SMS.L), the integrated metering services company that connects, owns, operates and maintains current generation and new advanced metering assets and databases, announces the payment of the first tranche of consideration for the acquisitions of CH4 Gas Utility and Maintenance Services Limited ("CH4") and Qton Solutions Limited ("Qton Solutions") (together, the "Acquisitions").

As announced on 21 March 2016, the initial consideration for the acquisitions of CH4 and Qton Solutions is £2 million and £2.9 million respectively and is to be satisfied through the issue of new ordinary shares in SMS ("New Ordinary Shares") at a price of 391.775p per New Ordinary Share. In both Acquisitions, the initial consideration is subject to a completion accounts adjustment and, accordingly, SMS has with effect from 29 March 2016 made the following payments:

1.    To CH4 shareholders, £1.6 million to be satisfied by the issue of 408,399 New Ordinary Shares; and

2.    To Qton Solutions shareholders, £2.6 million to be satisfied by the issue of 663,656 New Ordinary Shares.

A second and final tranche of the initial consideration for the Acquisitions will be made following agreement of the completion accounts in each Acquisition.

Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the 1,072,055 New Ordinary Shares Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. It is expected that admission to AIM of the New Ordinary Shares will become effective and that dealings will commence on 5 April 2016.

Following the issue of the New Ordinary Shares, the Company has 87,191,546 ordinary shares in issue. SMS does not currently hold any shares in treasury. Accordingly, this figure of 87,191,546 ordinary shares may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

For further information:

Smart Metering Systems plc	0141 249 3850
Alan Foy, Chief Executive Officer
Glen Murray, Finance Director
Cenkos Securities plc	0131 220 6939 / 0207 397 8900
Neil McDonald
Nick Tulloch
Kreab	020 7074 1800
Matthew Jervois
Daniel Holgersson

Notes to Editors

About Smart Metering Systems

Established in 1995, Smart Metering Systems plc, based in Glasgow, connects, owns, operates and maintains metering systems and databases on behalf of major energy companies. The Company provides a fully integrated service from beginning to end to cover the installation of a gas/electricity supply/connection to the procurement, installation and management of a gas or electricity meter asset to the collection and management of customer data and ongoing energy management services.

The Company has further applications for gas with its ADM device which allows "smart" functions such as remote reading and half-hourly consumption data to be offered to customers in addition to the normal metering services. The Company was admitted to the AIM market in July 2011 and is now part of the FTSE AIM 50 index. For more information on SMS please visit the Company's website: www.sms-plc.com.

CH4 Gas Utility and Maintenance services Limited

CH4 currently has capacity to install over 160,000 new domestic smart metering installations annually once the current workforce are through full training, indeed over 40 of these engineers are already accredited and have installed over 100,000 gas and electric domestic smart meters for energy suppliers independently of SMS thus far. Overall, CH4 adds 100 engineers and 60 contractors, of which 40 are dual fuel engineers.

In addition CH4 own a domestic smart dual fuel (gas and electricity meters) accredited training academy which will assist in providing additional fully trained installation capacity in support of SMS.

Qton Solutions Limited

Qton Solutions have a fully tried, tested and implemented solution for all filed management activities involved in domestic smart installations from shared appointment booking with installers and energy suppliers to stock, resource scheduling, installations management, asset registration and more; all key components for successful delivery of customer contracts and providing confidence for new customers to contract for their new domestic gas and electricity smart metering requirements.

About UK Domestic Smart Meter Market

The domestic smart meters project is overseen by the Department of Energy and Climate Change ("DECC") and aims to install smart meters in homes and small businesses across the UK by 2020.

While DECC are responsible for the overall project management and monitoring, Ofgem are responsible for ensuring customers are protected during the installation phase. Capita has been appointed as the project manager for the data communications standards and Smart Energy GB (a Government funded body) are responsible for the communications campaign.

This initiative requires every home and small business in the UK to have smart or advanced meter functionality by 2020. This will require significant investment for rolling out and replacing approximately 22 million domestic gas meters and 27 million electricity meters.

 

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