PPP Loan Forgiveness and Additional Funding

RNS Number : 9019Q

600 Group PLC

02 March 2021

 

Prior to publication, the information contained within this announcement was deemed by the Group to constitute inside information. With the publication of this announcement, this information is now considered to be in the public domain.

2 March 2021

The 600 Group PLC

PPP Loan Forgiveness and Additional Funding

The 600 Group PLC (the "Group"), the diversified industrial engineering company (AIM: SIXH), announces that its three USA operations have all been granted forgiveness of their initial loans under the USA Government Paycheck Protection Program ("PPP") which in total amounts to $2.2 million. It is expected that these amounts will be included in other income in the Consolidated Income Statement for the year to 31 March 2021.

Second round funding under the PPP scheme for an additional $2.2 million has been applied for. From this application, two of the three entities have so far received their allocation, amounting to $1.6 million, with the remaining $0.6 million expected to be received in the coming weeks. The new PPP loans are on the same terms as the initial PPP loans, and thus will be eligible for forgiveness from September 2021 onwards dependent on employment numbers, payroll expenditure and certain facility costs, with any amount not forgiven repayable over a two year term with an all-in interest rate of 1.0%.

Group net debt (excluding IFRS16 leases) following the forgiveness of the first round PPP loans and including the second round funding loans is currently $12.8 million.

Current Trading

Order intake has continued to improve each month since the COVID pandemic first broke, with February intake up nearly 40% on the prior year. The orderbook currently sits at $12m, which is now back to pre -pandemic levels.

Paul Dupee commented:

"The PPP loan forgiveness and the Government furlough assistance in the UK and Australia have helped the operating businesses to largely maintain their financial results despite an overall volume reduction for the financial year of over 20%. This has meant the Group has maintained employment and skills at a level which has allowed the businesses to react immediately to the increased activity we are currently seeing."

Enquiries:

The 600 Group PLC Paul Dupee, Executive Chairman	Tel: [phone]
Instinctif Partners Mark Garraway Rosie Driscoll	Tel: [phone]
Cenkos Securities plc (Nominated Adviser and Broker) Ben Jeynes / Max Gould (Corporate Finance) Alex Pollen (Sales)	Tel: [phone]

About The 600 Group PLC

The 600 Group PLC is a distributor, designer and manufacturer of industrial products with three principle areas of activities:

Machine Tools

The business has a strong reputation in the market for metal turning machines. Products range from small conventional machines for education markets, CNC workshop machines and CNC production machines. Selected outsourcing partners support the manufacturing of these machines and they are marketed through the Group's wholly owned international sales organisation and a global distribution network.

Precision Engineered Components

Machine spares are distributed to customers globally to help maintain the installed base of group machines which number in excess of 100,000. Additionally, work holding products are sold via specialist distributors to OEMs, including other machine builders.

Industrial Laser Systems

Industrial laser systems cover laser marking and processing including cutting, drilling, ablation and a host of other niche applications in the marking and micro machining sectors. They require no consumables and can operate on a continuous high speed basis and can be integrated into customers' production lines. The businesses have their own technology and proprietary software. Customer applications are diverse and range from aerospace to medical and pharmaceuticals. The requirement for increased product and component traceability is one of the market drivers.

More information on the Group can be viewed at:  www.600group.com    

 

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