Issue of Equity, TVR and Directors' Holdings

RNS Number : 4777T

Starvest PLC

05 January 2017

 

Thursday 5 January 2017

Starvest Plc ("Starvest" or "the Company")

Issue of Equity, Total Voting Rights and Directors' Holdings

The Company is pleased to announce that it has resolved to issue a total of 3,300,000 new Ordinary shares of £0.01 in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 2.00p per Ordinary Share as follows:

·     To Mr Ronald Bruce Rowan in part settlement of a loan granted to the Company in September 2015 (the "Loan"), 2,500,000 Ordinary shares ("Part Settlement"). Following the Part Settlement, the Loan will be reduced from £100,000 to £50,000; and

·     To its directors in lieu of a proportion of fees for the three months ended 31 December 2016.  The issue of new Ordinary Shares to directors is in accordance with the Company's enhanced focus on limiting the outflow of cash from the business at this time, thereby preserving cash for investment opportunities as they present themselves.

The following table shows the number of new Ordinary Shares issued and their resultant total holdings:

Shareholder/Director name	Number of ordinary shares issued	Interest in enlarged issued share capital	% of enlarged share capital
Ronald Bruce Rowan Callum N Baxter Gemma Cryan	2,500,000 500,000 75,000	12,670,000 2,515,872 75,000	29.03% 5.76% 0.17%
John Watkins Note 1	225,000	2,367,142	5.42%

Note 1:  Includes 1,200,000 ordinary shares held by his wife, Mrs Diane Mary Watkins.

Related Party Transaction

Mr Rowan currently holds approximately 25.2% of Starvest's issued ordinary share capital and as such is considered to be a related party of the Company as defined by the AIM Rules. The Part Settlement therefore constitutes a related party transaction pursuant to AIM Rule 13.

The independent directors, having consulted with Grant Thornton UK LLP (the Company's nominated adviser), confirm that they are satisfied that the terms of the Part Settlement are fair and reasonable insofar as the Company's shareholders are concerned.

Application will be made for the new shares to be admitted to trading on AIM with admission expected to take place on or around 12 January 2017.

Following admission, the Company's enlarged share capital will comprise 43,643,446 Ordinary Shares.  Therefore the total number of Ordinary Shares with voting rights is 43,643,446.  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 Company under the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014.

Callum N Baxter Chairman & Chief Executive 5 January 2017

Enquiries to:

Callum Baxter, Chairman [e-mail] or John Watkins, Finance Director 07768 512 404; [e-mail]

Colin Aaronson or Harrison Clarke - Grant Thornton UK LLP 02073 835 100

Nick Emerson or Andy Thacker - SI Capital Limited 01483 413 500

 

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