Trading Update

RNS Number : 8583O

Oakley Capital Investments Limited

06 July 2010

 



6 July 2010

Oakley Capital Investments Limited

Pre-close Trading Update

·      Unaudited NAV expected to be in the range of 143p - 147p

o  Up over 14% year on year

·      Acquisitive growth in portfolio companies strengthens market positions and increases market share

Oakley Capital Investments Limited (AIM: OCL, "OCIL"), the AIM-listed company established to provide investors with access to the investment strategy being pursued by Oakley Capital Private Equity L.P. (the "Limited Partnership"), announces its Pre-close Statement for the six months to 30 June 2010.

The Company, via its investment in the Limited Partnership, has an indirect interest in each of the Limited Partnership's five portfolio companies representing 65% of the Limited Partnership's total commitments. 

Oakley Capital Limited, the Investment Adviser to the Limited Partnership, estimates that the unaudited Net Asset Value of the Company will be in the range of 143p to 147p per share, up from 125p for the same period last year and 141p at 31 December 2009. The OCIL NAV is made up of cash, the investment in the Limited Partnership, and mezzanine loans made to the portfolio companies and the release of the final unaudited NAV is subject to an independent third party valuation.

The portfolio has seen a number of recent acquisitions, strengthening market positions and boosting growth opportunities:

·      51% of Verivox Holdings Limited ("Verivox"), one of Europe's largest independent online consumer price comparison businesses for energy and telecom services, was acquired in December 2009 and has continued its strong growth,.

·      On 19 March 2010, a subsidiary of web hosting provider Host Europe Corporation Limited ("Host Europe"), the Limited Partnership's largest investment, purchased the business and assets of Vanager GmbH, Germany's fifth largest virtual private server provider with approximately 4,000 customers and 6,000 virtual servers.  The maximum consideration for the purchase was €2.36 million, funded entirely from Host Europe's internal resources. This acquisition expanded Host Europe's existing VPS business in Germany and reinforced its market leading position.

·      On 30 April 2010 Headland Media Limited ("Headland Media"), another of the Limited Partnership's portfolio companies and a business-to-business media content provider, acquired Newslink Services Limited, a provider of news digest services to the maritime industry.  The acquisition was funded through an equity investment of $2.4 million made by the Limited Partnership and a mezzanine loan of up to $2.5 million from the Company. The acquisition provides access to Newslink's customer base into which Headland Media expects to cross sell additional products and helps Headland Media to increase its market share.

·      Daisy Group plc ("Daisy"), a UK AIM-listed communications services provider in which the Limited Partnership has a 14% interest, continues to build market share through its strategy of organic and acquisitive growth.  On 22 June 2010, it announced preliminary results for the 15 months to March 2010 which were ahead of expectations and demonstrated the progress made towards its aim of becoming one of the largest UK providers of unified communications services and solutions to the SME and mid-market sector. Acquired businesses (there have been seven acquisitions since the reverse acquisition of Freedom4 Group plc in July 2009) are being integrated on schedule, providing significant cost savings which should be reflected in their results for the year to 31 March 2011.

Peter Dubens, Director, commented:

"We are pleased with the trading performance of the Limited Partnership's portfolio companies in the first half of 2010, in particular, Verivox and Host Europe are continuing to outperform expectations. In addition to organic growth, a number of our portfolio companies have successfully identified opportunities to grow through acquisition, and are building market share in their respective markets.

"The tentative market recovery in 2010 has provided the Limited Partnership with a number of potentially interesting investment opportunities which it is currently evaluating and which may lead to further investment in the second half of 2010."

The Company is scheduled to release interim results for the half year to 30 June 2010 on 17 August 2010.

For further information please contact:

Oakley Capital Investments Limited	[phone]
Peter Dubens (Director)
Financial Dynamics	[phone]
Juliet Clarke / Erwan Gouraud
Liberum Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser & Broker)	[phone]
Steve Pearce / Steven Tredget

About Oakley Capital Investments Limited

The Company was established to provide investors with access to the investment strategy being pursued by the Limited Partnership.

The primary objective of the Limited Partnership is to invest in a diverse portfolio of private mid-market UK and European businesses, aiming to provide investors with significant long-term capital appreciation. 

The investment strategy of the Limited Partnership is to focus on companies with the scope for performance improvement operating within industries with growth or consolidation potential. In addition, the Limited Partnership seeks to invest in companies with the potential to achieve scale, thereby commanding a premium on exit.

 

END

 

 

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