Admission to AIM and First Day of Dealings

RNS Number : 7422X

Kooth plc

02 September 2020

 

2 September 2020

NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA OR JAPAN OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH PUBLICATION, RELEASE OR DISTRIBUTION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL.

For immediate release

Kooth plc

("Kooth" or the "Company" or the "Group")

Admission to Trading on AIM and First Day of Dealings

Kooth, a leading provider of online mental health services, is pleased to announce the admission of its entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. Dealings in the ordinary shares of the Company will commence today at 8.00am , under the ticker "KOO" and the ISIN " GB00BMCZLK30" . The Company's admission document is available to view on its Investor Relations website at koothplc.com.

The Company has successfully raised £16 million through a placing of 8,000,000 ordinary shares at a placing price of 200 pence per ordinary share (the "Placing Price"). In addition, 5,000,000 existing ordinary shares have been placed on behalf of Root Capital Fund II L.P, at the Placing Price, raising gross proceeds of £10 million. Kooth's market capitalisation at the Placing Price on admission will be £66.1 million. Panmure Gordon is acting as Nominated Adviser and sole Broker to the Company.

Kooth is the UK's largest digital mental health provider to the NHS for children and young people aged 10-25, offering digital mental health services and a broad range of therapeutic tools and interventions to the health service. It also provides these services to businesses and charities. The Company intends to use the new funds to support its growth plans, which include investing in its platform and service offering and expanding within strategic markets.

For the purposes of the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules, the total number of ordinary shares with voting rights in the Company with effect from 2 September 2020 will be 33,055,776. This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change of their interest in, the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

Tim Barker, Chief Executive Officer of Kooth , commented:

" This is a great moment for Kooth. In joining AIM we see a significant opportunity to scale up our company to support the growing demand for mental health services in both the UK and internationally. As a public company with a positive social impact, we are proud to become the first digital mental health platform to list on the London Stock Exchange. We have an ambitious plan to invest in our team and technology to deliver on our purpose to make personalised mental healthcare available to all.

"I'm grateful to our team that works every day to support 5.4 million people across the UK who have access to Kooth. I'd like to thank our new shareholders, with whose backing we can continue to invest in expanding our service to meet ever growing demands."

Kooth highlights

· Mental health online platform, offering digital mental health services to the NHS and businesses.

· Provides a safe, anonymous and accredited online service that aims to facilitate and develop conversations about mental wellbeing nationwide.

· Provides a broad range of therapeutic tools and interventions, putting choice and control in the hands of individuals to decide what works best for them. Focused on outcomes for the individual, Kooth's online platform provides:

o  Self-help tools and content: self-help activities to support individuals across a range of areas, from managing anxiety to expressing their feelings, together with a wealth of articles and advisory pieces created by the Kooth community and Kooth's clinical content team.

o  Community for Peer-to-Peer Support: online moderated forums covering a range of topics, where users can post and get support from others in the Kooth community.

o  Professional Counselling: anonymous, online text-chat based professional counselling, where individuals can get ad-hoc or ongoing support. Kooth's practitioners provide over 12,000 hours of counselling every month.

· As at June 2020, Kooth employed 298 people, 109 of which are professional counsellors who live across the United Kingdom. At a minimum, counsellors are BACP registered (or equivalent) with 450 hours' post qualification experience. The Company has a 24 person-strong technology, product and engineering team based in London that designs, builds, and optimises the Kooth technology platform, and a six person data science and research team.

Growth opportunities

· The Company's goal is to use digital technology to make mental health services accessible to all, spanning prevention, early intervention and ongoing care.

· Kooth believes that given the growing need for mental health support and the benefits of a digital-first approach, there is a potential addressable market in the UK of over £500 million in providing its services to businesses and the NHS.

· Through artificial intelligence processes, the Company aims to provide a personalised experience for users of the service. This personalisation aims to ensure that that the user is provided with the service or content deemed most suitable for them.

· The Company intends to continue to grow Kooth for children and young people by working with stakeholders to raise awareness, service demand, and expand existing contracts with commissioners. In addition, as commissioners invest to improve services to support the transition from paediatric to adult services, Kooth's service can provide support for 18-25 year olds.

·   There is the potential for future growth in the UK in both the public and private sector. In addition to expanding into regions that do not yet contract Kooth to support children and young people, Kooth recently launched its service for Adults which it sells to both the NHS and businesses.

· The Group also intends as part of its expansion strategy to look at new markets, including the US.

ENDS 

For further information, please contact:

Kooth plc
Tim Barker, CEO Sanjay Jawa, CFO	[e-mail]
Panmure Gordon, Nominated Adviser and sole Broker
Corporate Finance: Dominic Morley, Nicholas Harland, Sandy Clark Corporate Broking: Erik Anderson	[phone]
FTI Consulting
Jamie Ricketts / Alex Shaw / Clementine Boyer / Usama Ali	[e-mail]

About Kooth

Kooth is the UK's largest digital mental health provider to the NHS for children and young people aged 10-25. Our mission is to provide accessible and safe spaces for everyone to achieve better mental health. Our online platform is clinically robust and accredited to provide a range of therapeutic support and interventions. All our services are predicated on easy access to make early intervention and prevention a reality. 

Kooth's platforms are commissioned by 77% of the NHS ' s clinical commissioning group areas across England. It is a fully safeguarded and pre-moderated community with a library of peer and professional created content, alongside access to experienced online counsellors. There are no thresholds for support and no waiting lists.

Kooth was established in 2001. For more information: www. koothplc.com    

Important notices

This announcement does not constitute, or form part of, any offer or invitation to sell or issue, or any solicitation of any offer to purchase or subscribe for any common shares or other securities in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan or the Republic of South Africa or in any other jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful, prior to registration, exemption from registration or qualification under the securities laws of any jurisdiction. The distribution of this announcement and other information in connection with the placing and admission in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law and persons into whose possession this announcement, any document or other information referred to herein comes should inform themselves about and observe any such restriction. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. Neither this announcement nor any part of it nor the fact of its distribution shall form the basis of or be relied on in connection with or act as an inducement to enter into any contract or commitment whatsoever.  

Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (" Panmure Gordon "), which is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority, is acting exclusively for the Company as Nominated Adviser and Broker in connection with the placing and admission, and will not be responsible to any other person for providing the protections afforded to customers of Panmure Gordon or advising any other person in connection with the placing and admission. Panmure Gordon's responsibilities as the Company's Nominated Adviser under the AIM Rules for Companies and the AIM Rules for Nominated Advisers will be owed solely to the London Stock Exchange and not to the Company, the directors or to any other person in respect of such person's decision to subscribe for or acquire ordinary shares. Apart from the responsibilities and liabilities, if any, which may be imposed on Panmure Gordon by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 or the regulatory regime established under it, Panmure Gordon does not accept any responsibility whatsoever for the contents of this announcement, and no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made by Panmure Gordon with respect to the accuracy or completeness of this announcement or any part of it and no responsibility or liability whatsoever is accepted by Panmure Gordon for the accuracy of any information or opinions contained in this announcement or for the omission of any material information from this announcement.

This announcement may include statements that are, or may be deemed to be, "forward-looking statements".  These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms "believes", "estimates", "plans", "projects", "anticipates", "expects", "intends", "may", "will", or "should" or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology.  These forward-looking statements include matters that are not historical facts.  They appear in a number of places throughout this announcement and include statements regarding the directors' current intentions, beliefs or expectations concerning, among other things, the Company's results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth, strategies and the Company's markets.  By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances.  Actual results and developments could differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.  Forward-looking statements may and often do differ materially from actual results.  Any forward-looking statements in this announcement are based on certain factors and assumptions, including the directors' current view with respect to future events and are subject to risks relating to future events and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to the Company's operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity.  Whilst the directors consider these assumptions to be reasonable based upon information currently available, they may prove to be incorrect.  Save as required by applicable law or regulation, the Company undertakes no obligation to release publicly the results of any revisions to any forward-looking statements in this announcement that may occur due to any change in the directors' expectations or to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this announcement. 

Neither the content of the Company's website nor any website accessible by hyperlinks on the Company's website is incorporated in, or forms part of, this announcement.

 

END

 

 

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