Term Facility secured with Beach Point Capital

Tribe Technology PLC

25 October 2023

 

Prior to publication, the information contained within this announcement was deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the UK Market Abuse Regulation. With the publication of this announcement, this information is now considered to be in the public domain.

25 October 2023

Tribe Technology PLC

("Tribe Tech", the "Company" or the "Group")

Term Facility secured with Beach Point Capital

Tribe Technology PLC (AIM: TRYB), a disruptive developer and manufacturer of autonomous mining equipment, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a £3.0 million secured term loan facility agreement with BPC UK Lending DAC (the "Lender" or "Beach Point Capital") (together the "Facility").

Highlights

·    Injection of £3.0 million into the business to principally refinance the Company's legacy debt arrangements and further progress its previously outlined execution strategy.

·     Following drawdown of the Facility, the Company will have repaid its entire £0.52 million existing debt facility with Growth Finance Fund LP inclusive of accrued interest and fees.

·     The Facility is for a five-year term and bears interest at 13 per cent. per annum.

·     There is a 12-month repayment holiday commencing on drawdown.

Background to and reasons for the Facility

As outlined in the Company's AIM admission document published on 30 August 2023, the Group has historically been funded through a combination of equity, debt, grants, prepaid revenue on orders and subcontract manufacturing work revenues, totalling a combined £9.9 million.

To date the Group has been successful in receiving firm commercial orders for its first-generation Reverse Circulation ("RC") drill rig incorporating the Tribe Technology Drilling System (the "TTDS GC 700"), which is currently in production, amounting to over £10.5 million.

As part of the Group's admission to trading on AIM on 5 September 2023, the Group successfully raised approximately £4.6 million (before expenses) (the "Fundraise"). As set out in the Company's announcement on 5 September 2023, the net proceeds of the Fundraise receivable by the Group will be used towards (i) fulfilling the existing order book and increase the Group's level of inventory, (ii) pursuing the Group's product and technology road map, and (iii) expanding engineering, sales, and support staff.

Using the Group's status as a publicly quoted company the Group has successfully negotiated the entry of the Facility on terms that are more favourable than what would otherwise be available to the Group as a private company. The Group intends to immediately drawdown the Facility and use the monies to, amongst other matters, refinance the Group's legacy debt arrangements. In addition, the Group intends to use any remaining funds, subject to the Group maintaining a minimum cash balance of £1.0 million, to further progress its previously outlined strategy. This includes bringing forward the trials of the Group's sample system by undertaking concurrent testing and pretesting prior to rig deployment. 

Charlie King, Chief Executive Officer of Tribe Tech, commented:

"Following our recent successful admission to trading on AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange Group Plc, we are pleased to announce the entry into the Facility which further strengthens the Group's financial position at a time where the Group is at an important phase in the production of its first drill rigs and sample systems.

"The focus now remains on completing construction of our very first drill rig before the year end and converting our strong pipeline of interest into further sales of Tribe Tech's revolutionary autonomous drill rigs."

Terms and conditions of the Facility

Tribe Technology PLC (as guarantor), Tribe Technology Group Ltd ("TTGL") (as borrower and guarantor) and Tribe Technology Pty Limited ("Tribe Tech AUS") (as guarantor) have entered into the Facility which is secured by a debenture on all the assets of TTGL, a parent company guarantee from the Group which is secured by a debenture on all of the assets of the Company, and a guarantee of Tribe Tech AUS, which is secured against all the assets of Tribe Tech AUS.

Following drawdown of the entire Facility and the immediately subsequent repayment of its existing facility with Growth Finance Fund LP, the Group intends to repay its existing facility of AU$221,150 with Mitchell Asset Management Pty Limited by 31 December 2023. The Facility is for a five-year term which bears interest at 13 per cent, per annum payable monthly in arrears commencing on drawdown. However, the Group is pleased to have negotiated a 12-month repayment holiday commencing on drawdown of the Facility. After this 12-month period, the Group is required to repay the Facility by making equal monthly repayments of the principal each month. Interest is payable monthly in arrears from drawdown of the Facility. The Facility contains standard representations, warranties, covenants, indemnities and events of default for a loan of its type. This includes three ordinary course financial covenants to be tested during the term of the Facility: the cash covenant, the revenue covenant and the EBITDA covenant. The cash covenant requires that cash held by TTGL shall not fall below £1.0 million at any time. There are also ordinary course fees payable to the lender, including an arrangement fee, a prepayment fee and an exit fee ranging between 10% and 25% of the Facility. The earlier the Facility is repaid, the lower the exit fee will be.

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For further information, please visit www.tribetechgroup.com or contact:

Tribe Technology PLC	via Tavistock
Charlie King, Chief Executive Officer Eric Hampel, Chief Financial Officer
Allenby Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser and Broker)	[phone]
John Depasquale / Vivek Bhardwaj / Lauren Wright (Corporate Finance) Tony Quirke / Joscelin Pinnington (Sales & Corporate Broking)	[e-mail]
Tavistock (Financial PR)	[phone]
Gareth Tredway / Rebecca Hislaire / Saskia Sizen	[e-mail]

About Tribe Tech

Established in 2019, the Group was founded to create a safer, more efficient work environment through the development of fully autonomous reverse circulation drill rigs in the mining industry. The Group's core activities are the development, in-house manufacturing, and sale of its autonomous RC Drill Rigs incorporating its core proprietary intellectual property, the Tribe Technology Drilling System ("TTDS").

 

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