Result of GM, TVR and Fundraising of £50 million

RNS Number : 7207B

Hummingbird Resources PLC

20 June 2016

 

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OR DISSEMINATION INTO THE UNITED STATES OR THROUGH U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES

Hummingbird Resources plc / Ticker: HUM / Index: AIM / Sector: Mining

20 June 2016

Hummingbird Resources plc ("Hummingbird Resources" or the "Company")

Result of General Meeting, Total Voting Rights and Fundraising of £50 million

Hummingbird Resources plc (AIM: HUM), the West African gold company, is pleased to announce that at its General Meeting held earlier today, shareholders duly approved all the resolutions put before them allowing the Company to complete the Placing and Subscription for construction at the Yanfolila Gold Project in Mali as announced on 2 June 2016.  The Company also reports that it has exercised the Overallotment Option in respect of 16,795,829 shares.  In total the Company has raised £49.5 million (approximately US$71 million) under the Placing, Subscription and Overallotment Option (all as defined in the circular to shareholders dated 2 June 2016) through the issue of a total of 225,188,781 shares at 22 pence per share.  The Company has agreed to issue 402,966 finders warrants exercisable at 22p until 21 June 2019 in connection with the fundraising.  Admission of the new shares to trading on AIM is expected to occur on 21 June 2016.

The proceeds of the fundraising will be applied towards the detailed engineering and construction of the Company's Yanfolila Project in Mali where production is targeted in 2017, and for general corporate purposes.

Dan Betts, Managing Director of Hummingbird Resources, said: "Today is a significant day for Hummingbird.  We are delighted with the support from both our existing and new shareholders in this fundraising. Together with the demand for the overallotment option we have raised a total of US$71 million.  We can now build Yanfolila into one of the highest margin gold projects in Africa with first gold pour targeted for 2017 generating over US$70 million of free cash-flow in the first full year of steady rate production.  We look forward to the construction phase of Yanfolila and the announcement of further key milestones over the coming months."

Following admission, the Company's enlarged issued share capital will comprise 332,141,250 ordinary shares of £0.01 with one voting right per share.  There are no shares held in treasury and the total number of voting rights in the Company is therefore 332,141,250.

This figure of 332,141,250 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 a change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules. 

Following completion of the Placing, Subscription and Overallotment Option, the Company expects the following shareholders to hold notifiable interests in the Company: 

Shareholder	Number of Shares held following Admission	Shareholding as a proportion of the enlarged issued share capital
Sapinda Asia Limited	40,085,786	12.1%
The Capital Group Companies, Inc	31,533,000	9.5%
Lindine Inc.	31,103,425	9.4%
Gold Fields Ltd.	21,258,503	6.4%
Odey Asset Management	19,952,288	6.0%
Pala Investments	15,551,713	4.7%
Sloane Robinson	12,441,370	3.7%
Exploration Capital Partners 2012 Limited Partnership	12,332,862	3.7%

In addition, certain Directors of the Company acquired shares in the Placing and Overallotment Option.

Director	Shareholding prior to Admission	New shares subscribed for	Shareholding following Admission	% of issued share capital held following Admission
Daniel Betts *1	4,634,149	315,000	4,949,149	1.4%
Thomas Hill *2	108,235	40,000	148,235	-
David Pelham	2,325	22,727	25,052	-

* 1. Daniel Betts's interest consists of shares held by Daniel Betts, shares held by Stephen Betts & Sons Limited, and shares held by the Stephen Betts & Sons Limited (Self Administered) Pension Scheme.

* 2. Thomas Hill's interest includes contracts for difference over 5,000 ordinary shares, shares held directly, shares which are held in his pension, and shares which are owned by his wife.

Following the General Meeting, the Board has resolved that all existing share based incentive schemes (including the Long Term Incentive Plan) as disclosed in the Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2015 are rebased to 22p so as to align management with shareholders as the Company moves forward into construction.  Additionally, the Company is working with advisors to design and implement an appropriate incentive scheme to ensure the core team for delivering the Yanfolila Project can be recruited, retained and motivated to deliver the project as efficiently as possible for the benefit of shareholders.

**ENDS**

For further information please visit the Hummingbird website www.hummingbirdresources.co.uk or contact:

Daniel Betts Thomas Hill Robert Monro	Hummingbird Resources plc	Tel: [phone]
Charlie Cryer Stefan Murphy Jonathan Stephens Oliver Morse	RFC Ambrian Ltd Nominated Adviser, Bookrunner and Joint Broker	Tel: [phone]
Jon Belliss	Beaufort Securities Limited Joint Broker	Tel: [phone]
Lottie Brocklehurst Susie Geliher Hugo de Salis	St Brides Partners Ltd Financial PR/IR	Tel: [phone]

About Hummingbird Resources Plc

Notes to Editors

Hummingbird Resources (AIM: HUM) is building a leading gold production, development and exploration company.  The Company has two core gold projects, the near-term production Yanfolila Gold Project in Mali and the Dugbe Gold Project in Liberia.  Its current focus is on bringing Yanfolila, which has a Probable Reserve of 709,800oz @ 3.14g/t and total Resources of 1.8Moz of gold and an additional 390,700oz of non-compliant exploration potential.  The high grade gold project has the potential to turn a profit in a varying gold price environment and will allow for quick returns with low operating costs. 

The 4.2Moz Dugbe Gold Project in Liberia provides Hummingbird with excellent development upside.  An optimisation of the DFS is on-going whilst Yanfolila is brought to production in the near-term.  Additionally, the Company has 4,000km² highly prospective exploration ground in Mali and Liberia and is constantly evaluating new quality assets.

 

END

 

 

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