Amendment to standby loan arrangement

RNS Number : 3437T

Zoo Digital Group PLC

19 November 2013

 

ZOO DIGITAL GROUP PLC

("ZOO" or "the Company")

Amendment to standby loan arrangement

ZOO announces that it has agreed an extension and an amendment in the terms of the standby working capital loan facility provided to the Company by the wife of Dr. Stuart Green, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, as announced on 31 January 2013 (the "Loan Facility") so as to provide support for the expected growth of the business and as seasonal working capital cover.

The Loan Facility has been extended by up to £400,000, to a total of up to £600,000. The Loan Facility is expected to be drawn down in full in the current financial year, will now attract interest at a rate of 10 per cent. per annum on outstanding balances from time to time and repayments are forecast to commence from April 2014. The Loan Facility will remain secured on the assets of the Company. No fees are payable to Dr Green or his wife in respect of the Loan Facility, but the Company will recompense Dr Green for any reasonable costs incurred by him in the provision of the Loan Facility.

ZOOsubs, the Company's proprietary Cloud-based subtitle production and management system, is gathering momentum and the proportion of the Group's revenue from this service is increasing. As provision of the subtitling service entails payment by ZOO of sub-contract translators prior to cash receipts from the Company's customers, growth of this service line has driven a working capital requirement. The Company is in negotiations with a number of  suppliers of commercial financing to support its expectations of continuing growth. Meanwhile, ZOO will continue to monitor its cash resources and requirements, and has entered into the Loan Facility in order to support current trading and growth during a period when the Company's cash resources are, and traditionally have been, constrained.

As Dr. Green is a director of the Company, the amendment to the Loan Facility as described above constitutes a related party transaction pursuant to the AIM Rules for Companies. The Company's directors (other than Dr. Green), having consulted with the Company's nominated adviser, finnCap Limited, consider that the terms of the transaction are fair and reasonable insofar as the Company's shareholders are concerned.

ZOO Digital Group plc	0114 241 3700
Stuart Green - Chief Executive Officer
Helen Gilder - Group Finance Director
FinnCap	020 7220 0500
Ed Frisby / Henrik Persson (corporate finance) Joanna Weaving (corporate broking)
Newgate Threadneedle	020 7653 9850
Josh Royston / Hilary Millar

About ZOO Digital Group plc:

ZOO Digital Group plc provides software and related services that support the authoring, re-purposing and distribution of creative media. ZOO's products form an integrated suite of Cloud-based and desktop applications for audio/visual content and printed materials, adapting these media for different languages, formats and delivery mechanisms.

By centralising editorial and approval processes via secure cloud-based platforms, ZOO's proprietary patented software helps customers to increase their speed of production, reduce costs and protect their brand integrity. ZOO's services enable quicker and more cost effective processes across a wide range of applications and formats, including packaging, printed materials, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, video on demand, electronic sell-through, broadcast, music and electronic books.

The Group's largest customers include major Hollywood studios, for which the production, marketing and distribution of titles in numerous formats across many geographies and languages has previously been a lengthy, costly and largely manual process. Increasingly the Group's software is benefiting a variety of companies across sectors where the development of media products, printing, packaging and marketing involves complex processes in multiple countries and languages, particularly where brand integrity is of core importance.

 

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