Result of Placing

RNS Number : 7243R

WANdisco Plc

10 March 2021

 

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS NOT FOR PUBLICATION, RELEASE, OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN, INTO OR FROM, THE UNITED STATES, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, JAPAN, THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH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 JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE SAME WOULD BE UNLAWFUL. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND SHALL NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR ISSUE OR THE SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY, SUBSCRIBE OR ACQUIRE ANY SECURITIES IN THE UNITED STATES, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, JAPAN OR THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA (UNLESS AN EXEMPTION UNDER THE RELEVANT SECURITIES LAWS IS AVAILABLE) OR IN ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH ANY SUCH OFFER OR SOLICITATION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL.  

This Announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014 as retained as part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 as amended. Upon the publication of this Announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

10 March 2021

WANdisco plc

("WANdisco" or the "Company")

Result of Placing

WANdisco plc (AIM: WAND), the LiveData company, is pleased to announce that further to yesterday's announcement made in relation to the Proposed Placing and Subscription, the Bookbuild has closed and the Company has conditionally raised gross proceeds of $12.46 million through the successful placing (the "Placing") of 804,972 new ordinary shares (the "Placing Shares") of 10 pence each in the Company at the issue price of 446 pence per Ordinary Share (the "Issue Price") together with the Subscription, representing 1,216,120 new ordinary shares at the Issue Price. As announced on 8 March, the Company raised a confirmed $30 million through a firm subscription (the "Firm Subscription"), representing 4,864,480 new ordinary shares at the Issue Price, resulting in total gross proceeds of $42.46m.

The Placing Shares represent approximately 1.5 per cent. of the Company's Existing Ordinary Shares. The Issue Price represents a discount of approximately 0.4 per cent. to the Company's closing share price on 9 March 2021 (being the latest practicable date prior to this Announcement).

The new ordinary shares to be issue pursuant to the Placing and $7.5 million of the amount raised by way of the Subscription, representing 1,216,120 of the new ordinary shares (the "Conditional Subscription"), together representing approximately 2,021,092 new ordinary shares (the "New Ordinary Shares") are conditional, inter alia, upon Shareholder approval being obtained at the General Meeting expected to be held at 09:00 BST on 29 March 2021. The amount of  $30 million raised by way of the Subscription, representing 4,864,480 new ordinary shares, will be issued utilising the Company's existing shareholder authorities from its 2020 AGM, free of pre-emption rights (the "Firm Subscription").

Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited ("Stifel") acted as sole bookrunner in relation to the Placing.

Posting of Circular and Notice of General Meeting

The completion of the Placing and the Conditional Subscription requires the approval of shareholders to give the Board authority to issue the New Ordinary Shares and to disapply pre-emption rights in connection with the issue of such New Ordinary Shares. Accordingly, the Company will shortly publish a circular (the "Circular"), providing notice to convene a general meeting to be held on 29 March 2021 (the "General Meeting").

The Board unanimously considers that the Fundraising and the resolutions to be proposed at the General Meeting are in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders as a whole. Accordingly, the Board recommends that shareholders vote in favour of the resolutions to be proposed at the General Meeting, as the Directors intend to do in relation to their own and associated holdings of 5,249,283 existing ordinary shares in total, representing approximately 9.97 per cent. of the existing ordinary share capital as at the date of this announcement.

Admission

Application for the New Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission") will be made in due course. It is currently expected that settlement of all of the New Ordinary Shares and Admission will take place at 8.00 a.m. on 1 April 2021. The Placing and Conditional Subscription are conditional upon, inter alia, Admission becoming effective, receiving shareholder approval to issue the New Ordinary Shares at the General Meeting and the Placing Agreement becoming unconditional and not being terminated in accordance with its terms.

A GBP to USD to exchange rate of 1.38277 has been used in this announcement unless otherwise stated.

Total voting rights

The New Ordinary Shares will, when issued, rank pari passu in all respects with, and will carry the same voting and dividend rights as the existing ordinary shares. Following Admission of the New Ordinary Shares, the Company's enlarged issued share capital will comprise 59,498,595 voting ordinary shares. The aforementioned figure of 59,498,595 voting 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 in the interest in, the share capital of the Company under the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

For further information, please contact:

WANdisco plc	Via FTI Consulting
David Richards, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman
Erik Miller, Chief Financial Officer
FTI Consulting	[phone]
Matt Dixon / Chris Birt / Kwaku Aning
Stifel (Nomad and Bookrunner)	[phone]
Fred Walsh / Richard Short
Equity Sales	[phone] / [phone]

Dealing codes 

Ticker: WAND

ISIN for the Placing Shares: JE00B6Y3DV84

SEDOL for the Placing Shares: B6Y3DV8

This announcement contains inside information as defined in Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation No. 596/2014 ("MAR") as retained as part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 as amended. Market Soundings, as defined in MAR, were taken in respect of the proposed Placing with the result that certain persons became aware of this inside information, as permitted by MAR. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain. The person responsible for arranging for the release of this announcement on behalf of WANdisco is David Richards, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of WANdisco.

About WANdisco:

WANdisco is the LiveData company. WANdisco solutions enable enterprises to create an environment where data is always available, accurate and protected, creating a strong backbone for their IT infrastructure and a bedrock for running consistent, accurate machine learning applications. With zero downtime and zero data loss, WANdisco's products keep geographically dispersed data at any scale consistent between on-premises and cloud environments allowing businesses to operate seamlessly in a hybrid or multi-cloud environment. WANdisco has over a hundred customers and significant go-to-market partnerships with Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Oracle, and others as well as OEM relationships with IBM and Alibaba. For more information on WANdisco, visit http://www.wandisco.com.

This Announcement should be read in its entirety. In particular, you should read and understand the information provided in the "Important Notices" section of this Announcement.

IMPORTANT NOTICES 

This Announcement or any part of it does not constitute or form part of any offer to issue or sell, or the solicitation of an offer to acquire, purchase or subscribe for, any securities in the United States (including its territories and possessions, any state of the United States and the District of Columbia). The Placing Shares and the Subscription Shares have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "US Securities Act") or with any securities regulatory authority of any state or jurisdiction of the United States, and may not be offered, sold or transferred, directly or indirectly, in the United States except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the US Securities Act and in compliance with any applicable securities laws of any state or other jurisdiction of the United States. There will be no public offering of securities in the United States.

This Announcement may contain and the Company may make verbal statements containing "forward-looking statements" with respect to certain of the Company's plans and its current goals and expectations relating to its future financial condition, performance, strategic initiatives, objectives and results. By their nature, all forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances which are beyond the control of the Company, including amongst other things, United Kingdom domestic and global economic business conditions, market-related risks such as fluctuations in interest rates and exchange rates, the policies and actions of governmental and regulatory authorities, the effect of competition, inflation, deflation, the timing effect and other uncertainties of future acquisitions or combinations within relevant industries, the effect of tax and other legislation and other regulations in the jurisdictions in which the Company and its respective affiliates operate, the effect of volatility in the equity, capital and credit markets on the Company's profitability and ability to access capital and credit, a decline in the Company's credit ratings; the effect of operational risks; and the loss of key personnel. As a result, the actual future financial condition, performance and results of the Company may differ materially from the plans, goals and expectations set forth in any forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements made in this Announcement by or on behalf of the Company speak only as of the date they are made. Except as required by applicable law or regulation, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to publish any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained in this Announcement to reflect any changes in the Company's expectations with regard thereto or any changes in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

Solely for the purposes of Article 9(8) of Commission Delegated Directive 2017/593 (the "Delegated Directive") regarding the responsibilities of Manufacturers under the Product Governance requirements contained within: (a) Directive 2014/65/EU on markets in financial instruments, as amended ("MiFID II"); (b) Articles 9 and 10 of the Delegated Directive; and (c) local implementing measures (the "MiFID II Product Governance Requirements"), and disclaiming all and any liability, whether arising in tort, contract or otherwise which any "manufacturer" (for the purposes of the MiFID II Product Governance Requirements) may otherwise have with respect thereto, the Ordinary Shares have been subject to a product approval process, which has determined that the Ordinary Shares are (i) compatible with an end target market of retail investors and investors who meet the criteria of professional clients and eligible counterparties, each as defined in MiFID II; and (ii) eligible for distribution through all distribution channels as are permitted by MiFID II (the "Target Market Assessment"). Notwithstanding the Target Market Assessment, Distributors (as defined within the MiFID II Product Governance Requirements) should note that: the price of the Ordinary Shares may decline and investors could lose all or part of their investment; the Ordinary Shares offer no guaranteed income and no capital protection; and an investment in Ordinary Shares is compatible only with investors who do not need a guaranteed income or capital protection, who (either alone or in conjunction with an appropriate financial or other adviser) are capable of evaluating the merits and risks of such an investment and who have sufficient resources to be able to bear any losses that may result therefrom. The Target Market Assessment is without prejudice to the requirements of any contractual, legal or regulatory selling restrictions in relation to the proposed placing. Furthermore, it is noted that, notwithstanding the Target Market Assessment, the Bookrunner will only procure investors who meet the criteria of professional clients and eligible counterparties. For the avoidance of doubt, the Target Market Assessment does not constitute: (a) an assessment of suitability of appropriateness for the purposes of MiFID II; or (b) a recommendation to any investor or group of investors to invest in, or purchase, or take any other action whatsoever with respect to the Ordinary Shares. Each distributor is responsible for undertaking its own target market assessment in respect of the Ordinary Shares and determining appropriate distribution channels.

Stifel is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (the "FCA") in the United Kingdom and is acting exclusively for the Company and no one else in connection with the Placing, and Stifel will not be responsible to anyone (including any purchasers of the Placing Shares) other than the Company for providing the protections afforded to its clients or for providing advice in relation to the Placing or any other matters referred to in this Announcement.

No representation or warranty, express or implied, is or will be made as to, or in relation to, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by Stifel or by any of its affiliates or agents as to, or in relation to, the accuracy or completeness of this Announcement or any other written or oral information made available to or publicly available to any interested party or its advisers, and any liability therefore is expressly disclaimed.

 

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