Placing to Raise £2.3 Million

RNS Number : 3687Q

CentralNic Group PLC

17 June 2015

 

Press Release

17 June 2015

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS RESTRICTED AND IS NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN, INTO OR FROM THE UNITED STATES, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, JAPAN, THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH SUCH RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL.

FURTHER, THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS MADE FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR ISSUE OR SOLICITATION TO BUY, SUBSCRIBE FOR OR OTHERWISE ACQUIRE SHARES IN CENTRALNIC IN ANY JUSRISTICTION IN WHICH ANY SUCH OFFER OR SOLICITATION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL.

CentralNic Group plc

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

Placing to Raise £2.3 Million at 16% Premium to the Current Share Price

CentralNic (AIM: CNIC),  the internet platform that derives revenue from the worldwide sales of internet domain names, is pleased to announce that it has raised £2.3 million, before expenses, through the placing of  5,750,000 new ordinary shares of 0.1 pence each (the "Placing Shares") at 40 pence per share (the "Placing").

The Board of CentralNic is focussed on delivering a step change in its growth both organically and through the continuation of its proven acquisition strategy as deals are becoming available for each of the Wholesale, Retail and Enterprise business divisions within the Group. The net proceeds of the Placing will be used by the Company to strengthen its balance sheet and in turn enable greater flexibility for smaller investment opportunities as well as more transformational deals and for general working capital purposes.  As at 31 December 2014 the Company had net cash of £3.06 million and through its diverse business model, is profitable and cash generative.

The share price of the Placing represents a premium of approximately 16 per cent. to the closing mid-market price of CentralNic's shares of 34.5 pence as at 16 June 2015, being the latest practicable date prior to this announcement. The Placing Shares will represent 8.58 per cent. of the Company's enlarged ordinary share capital immediately following Admission.

Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission"). It is expected that Admission will become effective and dealings in the Placing Shares will commence at 8:00 a.m. on 18 June 2015.

Total voting rights

The enlarged issued share capital of the Company following the issue of the Placing Shares will be 67,007,481 Ordinary Shares with voting rights. The Company does not hold any Ordinary Shares in treasury. Following Admission, the above figure of 67,007,481 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 change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Commenting on the successful Placing, Ben Crawford, Chief Executive of CentralNic, said:

"This past year has been one of significant progress at CentralNic. As well as diversifying our business to gain exposure to the B2C and enterprise markets, we have gained a market share of over 18% of new TLD registrations, ranking the Company as the number two new  gTLD wholesaler globally. This is thanks to our strategy of targeting the developing world, where growth is most rapid, as well as our inventory of great TLDs, including .xyz, the world's leading new gTLD by a considerable distance in terms of number of registrations. The Group looks to continue on its growth path and to increase its portfolio of TLDs, to grow revenues and profits.

"We are delighted to have been able to raise monies from a new institutional shareholder as well as existing shareholders and look forward to working with all our shareholders as CentralNic utilises these new funds to assist the Group in executing our growth strategy in this period of unprecedented change to the internet."

-Ends-

For further information:

CentralNic Group plc
Ben Crawford (CEO)	[phone]
Zeus Capital - Nomad and Joint Broker
Ross Andrews / Nick Cowles	[phone]
John Goold /Alex Davies	[phone]
Peel Hunt LLP - Joint Broker
Richard Kauffer / Euan Brown (Corporate)	[phone]
Alastair Rae (Syndications)
Abchurch Communications
Jamie Hooper / Canace Wong	[phone]
[e-mail]	www.abchurch-group.com

About CentralNic Group plc

CentralNic (LSE: CNIC) is a London-based AIM-listed company which earns revenues from the worldwide sales of internet domain names over a technology platform that it developed and manages.  These domain names are sold on an annual subscription basis and paid for by customers upfront, making CentralNic a cash-generative business with annuity revenue streams.  CentralNic comprises three business lines within the domain name industry.  It operates a global wholesale network, supplying domain names to over 1,500 vendors in 77 countries, and is a leader in wholesaling for new Top-Level Domains - the new endings for domain names being introduced as alternatives to .com and .net.  CentralNic is the exclusive wholesaler for all domains ending with .tickets, .website, .wiki, .bar, .feedback and .xyz, with more than 50 others under contract.  CentralNic is also a leading global domain name retailer, with its retail websites including internetbs.net, buydomains.london and domain.luxury.  Additionally, via its enterprise programme, CentralNic supplies domain names (including high-value premium domain names), software and services directly to large corporations and governments.

*Global statistics for new TLDs, .xyz registered over 974,000: https://ntldstats.com/tld

**Global statistics for new TLDs, Global Breakdown: https://ntldstats.com/country

***Global statistics for Registry Service Providers, CentralNic at 18.30%: https://ntldstats.com/backend

For more information please visit: www.centralnic.com

 

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