Sale or closure of subsidiaries; share suspension

Deepverge PLC

26 June 2023

 

26 June 2023

DeepVerge plc

("DeepVerge" or "the Company" or "the Group")

Sale or closure of subsidiaries; suspension of trading of shares

DeepVerge (AIM: DVRG) announces an update regarding the potential sale of one or more of its business units, and the financial position of DeepVerge, and announces that trading of the Company's shares on AIM will be temporarily suspended from 7.30 a.m. today, pending clarification of the Company's financial position.

Sale or closure of subsidiaries

As announced on 5 June 2023, the Company has been, inter alia, seeking to sell one or more of the principal business units with the aim of raising sufficient funds to enable the remainder of the Group to continue to trade. Despite receiving indicative offers for both the Labskin (including Skin Trust Club and Rinocloud) and Modern Water businesses, in the Board's opinion none of these offers appears likely to reach a successful conclusion on a timely basis.

The Company previously announced (see RNSs of 17 April 2023 and 19 April 2023) that it has been operating from a limited working capital position. The Company's financial position is now such that it is unlikely that sufficient funds will be realised - either from sale of Group businesses or assets, or from introduction of new financing to the Group - in time to enable the Company or its business units to continue to trade and to repay all creditors. The Board has therefore taken the decision to no longer support the ongoing costs of these businesses, and is seeking to realise whatever value is possible through the sale of one or more of the Labskin, Modern Water and Glanaco business units.

The Board's current expectation is that this process will result in the sale, closure or administration of all Group subsidiaries.

Holding company - DeepVerge plc

DeepVerge plc is not a trading company and has no operating revenues. It currently has around £0.2m of net liabilities, and further liabilities, including those relating to the Group audit, are expected to crystallise shortly. Given the situation regarding its subsidiaries as set out above, there is uncertainty whether the Company will have sufficient funds to pay its debts as they fall due.

Suspension of trading of shares

At the request of the Company, trading of the Company's shares on AIM will be temporarily suspended from 7.30 a.m. today, pending clarification of the Company's financial position.

Further updates will be given as appropriate.

DeepVerge plc	Nigel Burton, Interim CEO	[phone]
SPARK Advisory Partners Limited (Nominated Adviser)	Neil Baldwin	[phone]
Turner Pope Investments (TPI) Limited (Broker)	Andy Thacker/James Pope	[phone]

This announcement contains inside information as stipulated under the UK version of the Market Abuse Regulation No 596/2014 which is part of English Law by virtue of the European (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended. On publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this information is considered to be in the public domain.

 

END