Placing

RNS Number : 2757M

Tekcapital plc

06 May 2015

 

6 May 2015 

Tekcapital plc

("Tekcapital" or "the "Company")

Placing to raise £2.15 million

The Board of Tekcapital (AIM: TEK), an international provider of technology and intellectual property services, is pleased to announce that the Company has raised gross proceeds of £2.15 million, by way of a placing (the "Placing") of a total of 10,750,000 new ordinary shares of 0.4p each (the "Placing Shares") at a price of 20 pence per share (the "Placing Price"). The Placing, which was conducted by Allenby Capital Limited and Optiva Securities Limited, was oversubscribed.

Summary:

·      Gross proceeds of the Placing amount to a total of £2.15 million, estimated to be £2.02 million net of expenses, excluding VAT.

·      The net proceeds of the Placing will be used for two purposes:

o  To expand Tekcapital's sales force to accelerate the growth of its client base for technology transfer and InventionEvaluator services; and

o  To enable Tekcapital to acquire and sell-on the licences for additional university intellectual properties.   

·      The Placing Shares will be issued to a range of institutional and other investors, including existing and new shareholders in the Company.

·      Continuing pipeline of intellectual property licence opportunities for potential acquisition.

Commenting on the Placing, Dr. Clifford M. Gross, the Company's Chairman, said: "I am very encouraged by the significant level of support that we have received from existing shareholders and also from new investors who have chosen to participate in our growth story. The funds raised will enable us to accelerate our strategy with an expanded sales force driving new client acquisition. We are also continuing to see several extremely interesting technologies in the market place that we believe are suitable for out-licence and have the potential to realise significant value for our shareholders."

Background to and reasons for the Placing

On 14 April 2015, Tekcapital announced that it had acquired the exclusive worldwide licence to a portfolio of 13 optical technology patents from the University of Central Florida. This was the fourth technology licence acquisition transaction that the Company has completed since January 2015 and adds to the previous technology licence acquisitions in the areas of reduced-fat food production (a process called Crackle-Baked^TM) and non-invasive glucose measurement for diabetics.

Since its admission to AIM, Tekcapital has developed its business and significantly expanded its client base, through the hiring of key sales and marketing executives to drive the adoption of its services. The Company has opened new offices in Miami and Singapore and has signed up new clients in Israel, Finland and the United States.

The net proceeds of the Placing will allow Tekcapital to expand its sales force to accelerate the growth of its client base for technology transfer. This will include staff additions in sales, plus advertising and marketing support. In addition, the net proceeds of the Placing will be used to acquire multiple university intellectual property rights for follow on out-licensing or sale. 

The Placing

The Company has raised gross proceeds of £2.15 million (approximately £2.02 million net of estimated expenses before VAT) through the issue of the Placing Shares. The Placing Price represents a discount of approximately 8 per cent. to the closing mid-market price on AIM of Tekcapital's shares of 21.75p on 5 May 2015, being the latest practicable date prior to this announcement. The Placing Shares will represent approximately 31 per cent. of the Company`s enlarged ordinary share capital immediately following Admission (as defined below).

Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission"). It is expected that Admission will become effective, and dealings in the Placing Shares will commence, at 8:00 am on 11 May 2015.

The Placing Shares will be issued credited as fully paid and will rank in full for all dividends and other distributions declared, made or paid in respect of the Company`s ordinary shares of 0.4p each ("Ordinary Shares") after the date of Admission and will otherwise rank pari passu in all respects with the Company`s existing Ordinary Shares. 

Total Voting Rights

The enlarged issued share capital of the Company following the issue of the Placing Shares will be 34,678,539 Ordinary Shares with voting rights. The Company does not hold any Ordinary Shares in Treasury. 

Following Admission, the above figure of 34,678,539 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 to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Shareholdings in the Company

Following the issue of the Placing Shares, the holdings of the directors of Tekcapital and other shareholders holding in excess of 3 per cent. of the Company's enlarged share capital on Admission are, to the best of the knowledge of the Board of Tekcapital, as follows:

Name of Shareholder	Holding of Ordinary Shares	% of enlarged share capital
Clifford M. Gross, Ph.D. (Chairman)	8,657,500	24.97%
Bill Payne (Non-executive Director)	400,000	1.15%
Jeffrey Lewis, J.D. (Non-executive Director)	100,000	0.29%
Carl Nisser, J.D. (Non-executive Director)	100,000	0.29%
Alexander Maxwell Hamilton Inglis	1,525,000	4.40%
RBC Trustees (CI) Limited as trustees of the Priory Accumulation & Maintenance Trust and the Edna Wray Grandchildren's Accumulation & Maintenance Trust (Nigel Wray's family trusts)	6,000,000	17.30%

For further information please contact:

Tekcapital plc	[phone] Ext 305
Clifford M. Gross	[e-mail]
Allenby Capital Ltd (Nominated Adviser & Joint Broker)	[phone]
Jeremy Porter / Alex Brearley
Optiva Securities Limited (Joint Broker)	[phone]
Jeremy King / Vishal Balasingham	[e-mail]
FTI Consulting, LLP	[phone]
Chris Lane / Emma Appleton / Roger Newby	[e-mail]

Tekcapital plc - The World's Largest University Network for Open Innovation

Tekcapital helps clients profit from new, university-developed intellectual properties. With our proprietary discovery search engine, linked to 4,000+ universities in 160 countries, coupled with expert scientific review, we provide a turn-key service to make it easy for clients to find and acquire the IP they need to create a competitive advantage. Tekcapital plc is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (AIM: symbol TEK) and is headquartered in Oxford, in the UK. For more information, please visit www.tekcapital.com.

 

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