20 January 2011
Coms plc
("Coms", the "Company" or the "Group")
Share Placing and Issue of Equity
Coms plc is pleased to announce a share placing (the "Placing") of 19,111,112 new ordinary shares of 1 pence each in the capital of the Company ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 2.25 pence per share.
The gross proceeds of the Placing are £430,000 which will be used by the Company to provide additional funds for further acquisitions and the continued growth of the Company's existing operations.
Institutional investors purchased 13,066,667 new Ordinary Shares, 68.4 per cent of the Placing, with the balance acquired by two Directors. The institutional investors include an existing substantial investor, which has 'followed its money', approximately maintaining its percentage holding, and a new institution which has taken an equally substantial holding in the enlarged share capital.
Richard Bennett, CEO of Coms said, "We believe this support from new and existing institutional shareholders is a significant vote of confidence in the Group. Coms is operating in a growing market sector and we are very encouraged that institutional investors are backing our business model of pursuing business customers. It remains the Company's short term goal to grow our reoccurring revenue streams from Internet Telephony and move into sustainable profitability".
The following Directors took part in the Placing:
Director |
No. of new Ordinary Shares |
No. of Ordinary Shares held following the Placing |
% of issued share capital held following the Placing |
Jason Drummond |
5,377,778 |
25,376,819 |
33.33 %
|
Justin Drummond |
666,667 |
3,133,897 |
4.12 % |
The issue of new Ordinary Shares to Jason Drummond (Executive Chairman of the Company and a substantial shareholder) and Justin Drummond (a non-executive director of the Company) are Related Party Transactions for the purpose of AIM Rule 13.
Pursuant to AIM Rule 13, the directors (excluding Jason Drummond and Justin Drummond) consider, having consulted with Northland Capital Partners Limited, the Company's Nominated Adviser, that the terms of the related party transactions with each of Jason Drummond and Justin Drummond are fair and reasonable insofar as the Company's shareholders are concerned.
The new Ordinary Shares which have been issued will represent approximately 25.10% per cent. of the Company's enlarged issued share capital immediately following the Placing.
Application has been made for the new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. It is expected that Admission will be effective and that dealings in the shares will commence on Tuesday 25 January 2011.
The Placing Shares will rank pari passu with the existing shares.
The Company's enlarged share capital immediately following the Placing will be 76,134,894 Ordinary Shares. This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the Disclosure and Transparency Rules.
Contact:
Coms plc
Richard Bennett +44 (0) 20 7148 3148
Northland plc (Nominated Adviser and Broker)
Luke Cairns /Rod Venables +44 (0) 20 7492 4750
XCAP Securities Limited (Broker)
John Grant / Karen Kelly +44 (0) 20 7101 7070
Threadneedle Communications (PR)
Graham Herring +44 (0) 20 7653 9858