Placement of bond issue and Trading Update

RNS Number : 1100D

CentralNic Group PLC

24 June 2019

 

This announcement contains inside information.

24 June 2019

CentralNic Group plc

("CentralNic" or "the Company" or "the Group")

Successful placement of debut €50m senior secured bond issue

and

Trading Update

CentralNic Group PLC (AIM: CNIC), the internet platform that derives revenue from the worldwide sales of internet domain names, is pleased to announce the successful placement of senior secured debt and strong trading for the first four months of the financial year.

Successful placement of debut €50m senior secured bond issue

On 23 May 2019, CentralNic announced that it had mandated Pareto Securities to arrange a series of fixed income investor meetings to potentially issue a 4-year senior secured non-convertible bond of approximately €50m. 

The Company has now successfully completed a new senior secured bond issue of €50m (c.$56.8m USD as of 21 June 2019) which was oversubscribed. The bond which matures in July 2023, has a coupon of three-month EURIBOR* plus 7% p.a. with quarterly interest payments. Pareto Securities acted as Sole Bookrunner for the bond issue. CentralNic was advised by Rothschild & Co in connection with the bond issue..

·    *With a floor at zero per cent

The settlement date for the bond issue is expected to be in early July 2019. Following settlement, the Company will use these funds to repay existing interest-bearing liabilities and to fund the acquisition of the Sydney-based business TPP Wholesale, the leading platform for resellers of domain names and hosting in Australasia, for a headline consideration of $24m AUD (c.$16.6m USD as of 21 June 2019). TPP Wholesale's revenues and EBITDA for the financial year ended 31 December 2018 were $17.0m AUD (c.$12.7m USD) and $3.9m AUD (c.$2.9m USD), respectively, on an unaudited basis.

An application will be made for the bonds to be listed on the Oslo stock exchange. 

Trading Update

Trading for the first four months of 2019 has been strong and management therefore expect full year results to be ahead of market consensus. For the four month period ending 30 April 2019 CentralNic had recorded revenues of c.$33.8m USD (c.$9.0m USD for the same period in 2018) and EBITDA of c.$5.4m USD (c.$0.4m for the same period in 2018). Net debt, excluding prepaid charges, stood at c.$7.4m USD as of 30 April 2019. The Company has changed its reporting currency to US dollars for 2019, as announced on 26 September 2018.

Ben Crawford, CentralNic CEO commented:

"We are delighted to have completed our debut bond issue, which was oversubscribed and supported by a wide range of debt capital markets investors globally. This establishes CentralNic as an issuer and, in combination with our strong support among equity market investors, offers us considerable financial flexibility, over the medium term, to pursue our strategic growth objectives.

"Meanwhile, the pleasing organic growth of our existing recurring business continues to provide a solid basis to include this increased leverage into our financial structure - allowing us to continue making earnings accretive acquisitions while maintaining prudent debt ratios."

For further information:  

CentralNic Group Plc Ben Crawford, Chief Executive Officer Don Baladasan, Group Managing Director Michael Riedl, Chief Financial Officer	[phone]
Zeus Capital Limited (NOMAD and Joint Broker) Nick Cowles / Jamie Peel (Corporate Finance) John Goold / Rupert Woolfenden   (Institutional Sales)	[phone] [phone]
Stifel (Joint Broker) Fred Walsh / Neil Shah / Alex Price / Rajpal Padam	[phone]
Newgate Communications (for Media) Bob Huxford Tom Carnegie Robin Tozer	[phone] [e-mail]

About CentralNic Group plc  

CentralNic (AIM: CNIC) is a London-based AIM-listed company which drives the growth of the global digital economy by developing and managing software platforms allowing businesses globally to buy subscriptions to domain names, used for their own websites and email, as well as for protecting their brands online.  Its core growth strategy is identifying and acquiring cash-generative businesses in its industry with annuity revenue streams and exposure to growth markets and migrating them onto the CentralNic software and operating platforms.  

CentralNic operates globally with customers in almost every country in the world.  It earns recurring revenues from the worldwide sales of internet domain names and other services on an annual subscription basis.  

For more information please visit: www.centralnicgroup.com 

The person responsible for the release of this announcement is Michael Riedl, CFO.

 

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