9 April 2024
Amigo Holdings PLC
("Amigo" or the
"Company")
General Meeting
Amigo Holdings PLC announces
that a general meeting of the Company's
shareholders will be held at Bournemouth Highcliff Marriott
Hotel, 105 St Michael's Road, Bournemouth BH2 5DU on
Tuesday 30 April 2024 at 13.30 ("General Meeting").
The Notice of General Meeting
("Notice") and accompanying
letter from the Chair, Jonathan Roe, are today being sent to
all shareholders and, will be available on the Company's website,
at https://www.amigoplc.com/Investors/.
The virtual meeting details will be published
ahead of the meeting.
The full text of the letter from the
Chair in the Circular is replicated below without material
adjustment or amendment:
"Introduction
On
28 March 2024, the Company announced that it was seeking to raise
£237,548, before expenses, by the issue in two tranches of an
aggregate of 95,019,200 new ordinary shares of 0.25p each at a
subscription price of 0.25p per share fully paid ranking pari passu
in all respects with the existing issued ordinary shares
("Ordinary Shares") (the
"Capital Raise") and had
engaged James McColl ("Jim") to act as a strategic Board
Consultant. In that role, Jim will be assisting the Board in
identifying potential strategic opportunities for the Company to
continue as a listed company by way of a reverse
takeover.
On
5 April 2024, the first tranche of 23,766,400 new Ordinary Shares
were issued ("First Placing
Shares") raising £59,416, before expenses, utilising the
authorisation granted at the Company's Annual General Meeting held
on 27 September 2023 to the Directors of the Company ("Directors") to allot up to an
additional 5 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital for
cash without out offering pre-emption rights to existing
shareholders. The issue of the second tranche of 71,252,800 new
Ordinary Shares ("Second Placing
Shares"), being 14.99% of the Company's issued share capital
before the Capital Raise, raising £178,132, before expenses, is
conditional, among other things, upon the approval of shareholders
to dis-apply their Companies Acts pre-emption rights over such
issue.
The purpose of this letter is to explain the background to the
Capital Raise, the engagement of Jim as a Board Consultant and to
convene a General Meeting of shareholders to seek their permission
to authorise the Directors of the Company to issue the Second
Placing Shares, without offering pre-emption rights to existing
shareholders.
Details of the Capital
Raise
The Capital Raise and engagement of Jim are being made in the
context of the Company and its subsidiaries' (the "Group") Scheme of Arrangement
("Scheme") pursuant to
which the Company's operating subsidiary, Amigo Loans Ltd
("ALL"), is being run-off.
ALL owns almost all of the Group's assets and, under the terms of
the Scheme, ALL is required to liquidate all of its assets and
subsequently be placed into a members' voluntary liquidation, with
effectively all realised value being for the benefit of creditors
under the Scheme. Prior to ALL being ultimately placed into
liquidation, expenditure incurred by ALL needs to be for the direct
or indirect benefit of ALL's Scheme creditors.
Accordingly, the Capital Raise will be used primarily to pay
the costs of the Capital Raise and fund some of the costs
associated with exploring potential reverse takeover opportunities
including consultancy costs. Based on the Company's estimates of
the Capital Raise transaction costs and the Company's ongoing costs
as a listed entity, the proceeds from the issue of the new Ordinary
Shares is expected to extend the runway, until the Company itself
requires further funding, for up to a year.
The effect of the issue of the new Ordinary Shares on the
Company's ordinary issued share capital is set out in the table
below:
|
Nominal
|
Number of
|
Percentage
|
Gross
|
|
Value
|
Ordinary
|
Increase
|
proceeds
|
|
|
Shares
|
|
|
First Placing Shares
|
£59,416.00
|
23,766,400
|
5.00%
|
£59,416.00
|
Second Placing Shares
|
£178,132.00
|
71,252,800
|
14.99%
|
£178,132.00
|
|
-----------------
|
-----------------
|
---------------
|
---------------
|
|
£237,548.00
|
95,019,200
|
19.99%
|
£237,548.00
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ordinary Shares in issue before the Capital
Raise
|
£1,188,334.40
|
475,333,760
|
|
|
|
-----------------
|
-----------------
|
|
|
Ordinary Shares in issue after the Capital
Raise
|
£1,425,882.40
|
570,352,960
|
|
|
|
------------------
|
-----------------
|
|
|
Notes:
(i)
As of 27 March
2024 (being the latest practicable date prior to the announcement
of the Capital Raise) the Company's issued share capital consisted
of 475,333,760 Ordinary Shares ("Prior Issued Share
Capital").
(ii)
As of 8 April
2024 (being the latest practicable date prior to the publication of
this document) following the issue of the First Placing Shares, the
Company's issued share capital consists of 499,100,160 Ordinary
Shares ("Existing Issued Share
Capital").
(iii)
On completion of
the issue of the Second Placing Shares, the Company's enlarged
issued share capital will consist of 570,352,960 Ordinary Shares
("Enlarged Issued Share
Capital").
(iv)
The Company has in issue 41,000
Deferred shares of 24p each. The Deferred shares carry no voting or
dividend rights.
(v)
No Ordinary Shares are currently
held in treasury by the Company or held by any other person on its
behalf and no Ordinary Shares are currently held by any subsidiary
of the Company.
The Second Placing Shares will, when issued, represent
approximately 14.3% of the Existing Issued Share Capital and 12.5%
of the Enlarged Issued Share Capital. In aggregate, the First
Placing Shares and the Second Placing Shares (when issued) will
represent approximately 16.7% of the Enlarged Issued Share
Capital.
The gross proceeds of the issue of the Second Placing Shares
amounts to £178,132 (before expenses) and, together with the First
Placing Shares, amounts to £237,548, before expenses. The net
proceeds of the Capital Raise after expenses are estimated to be
£184,000.
The issue of the First Placing Shares has been completed. The
issue of the Second Placing Shares is conditional upon: (i) the
approval of shareholders to dis-apply their Companies Act 2006
pre-emption rights over such issue, which is being sought at the
General Meeting; (ii) on regulatory approval for an internal
reorganisation, which insulates the Capital Raise monies from the
Scheme processes; and (iii) the Second Placing Shares being listed
on the premium segment of the Official List and to being admitted
to trading on the main market for listed securities of the London
Stock Exchange.
The Second Placing Shares will be issued in both certificated
and uncertificated form and will rank pari passu in all respects
with the Existing Issued Ordinary Shares including voting,
entitlement to income and entitlement on a return of
capital.
Application will be made for the Second Placing Shares to be
listed on the premium segment of the Official List and to be
admitted to trading on the main market for listed securities of the
London Stock Exchange. The Issue and admission of the Second
Placing Shares is conditional upon shareholders approving the
Resolution at the General Meeting and on Amigo receiving regulatory
approval for an internal reorganisation, which is expected to occur
on or about 6 May 2024, and a further announcement will be made in
due course ("Admission").
Scheme
creditors
The Capital Raise has no impact on the amount and timing of
redress payments to the Group's Scheme creditors or the obligation
on the trading subsidiary ALL to liquidate under the
Scheme.
Future
plans
Jim brings nearly 30 years' experience of creating investor
value by building businesses. Further background information on Jim
is set out in the Appendix to the Company's RNS published on 28
March 2024. Jim has been engaged to act as a Board Consultant, to
assist the Board in identifying potential strategic opportunities
for the Company to continue as a listed company by way of a reverse
takeover. The Board expects that Jim will be formally appointed a
non-executive Director of the Company, once the Capital Raise has
been completed.
At
this very early stage, there can be no certainty that a reverse
takeover will take place and any such transaction will, among other
things, require shareholder approval and a new application for
listing in accordance with Listing Rule 5.6.
General
Meeting
In
order to issue the Second Placing Shares, shareholders need to
approve the dis-application of pre-emption rights in respect of
those shares. The resolution is being proposed at the General
Meeting as a special resolution (requiring a 75 per cent majority
of votes cast) and, if passed, gives the required authority to the
Directors to issue these shares, and is set out in the notice of
General Meeting in this document ("Resolution").
The Resolution proposes that the Directors be generally and
unconditionally authorised to allot and issue equity securities in
connection with the issue of the Second Placing Shares up to an
aggregate nominal amount of £178,132 which represents 14.28 per
cent. of the Company's Existing Issued Share capital at the latest
practicable date. If granted, this authority will expire at the
conclusion of the next Annual General Meeting of the Company (or,
if earlier, at the close of business on 27 December
2024).
Attendance at the General
Meeting
The Company's intention is that shareholders will be able to
attend the General Meeting in person, should they so wish. The
Company will also provide for shareholders to be able to listen to
and view the General Meeting on a webcast and shareholders can
submit questions to the Board in advance of the General Meeting by
emailing investors@amigo.me,
including your
full name and investor code (IVC number).
The Board may need to make further changes to the arrangements
relating to the General Meeting, including how it is conducted, and
shareholders should therefore continue to monitor the Company's
website and announcements for any updates.
Voting
If
you hold your shares through a broker or a nominee (eg Hargreaves
Lansdown, Halifax Share Dealing, IG Markets, AJ Bell, etc) you
should refer to the 'Nominated persons' note on page 11 [of the
Circular] for information on how to vote.
If
you do not hold your shares through a broker or a nominee and would
like to vote on the Resolution but cannot come to the General
Meeting, please register your proxy electronically. To safeguard
your ability to be able to vote on the Resolution, you are strongly
encouraged to vote by proxy and to appoint the Chair of the meeting
as your proxy. The Chair will cast votes in accordance with your
instructions. You can register your proxy vote electronically
at www.signalshares.com.
See the
Additional Information section commencing on page 9 [of the
Circular] for more details. Your proxy vote must be received by no
later than 13.30 on Friday 26
April 2024.
Absent any UK government restrictions on meetings, completion
of the form of proxy will not prevent you from attending or voting
at the meeting in person, should you so wish.
Recommendation
The Board considers that the Resolution to be put to you at
the General Meeting is an important part of the Company's future
strategy as set out above.
The Directors are very mindful of the importance of
shareholders' pre-emption rights. However, the costs of a
pre-emptive offer would have been prohibitive and substantially
diminished the net funds being raised. In any event, the Company
did not have available funds at the time to allocate to the
preparation of a circular or prospectus.
Furthermore, as the Capital Raise is limited to under 20% of
the Prior Issued Share Capital and, to raise sufficient funds, is
at a significant premium to the prevailing share price prior to the
announcement of the Capital Raise, the Directors consider that the
dilution on existing shareholders is limited to an acceptable
level.
The Group has been in wind-down since March 2023. The
Directors have two primary obligations: (i) to maximise the run-off
proceeds from the wind-down of business, for the benefit of the
Scheme creditors; and (ii) to explore what, if any, value can be
derived from the residual shell. The Capital Raise provides the
funds to explore possible reverse takeover opportunities to create
potentially some residual value attributable to
shareholders.
Accordingly, the Directors unanimously recommend that you vote
in favour of the Resolution, as they intend to do themselves in
respect of their own beneficial holdings of 287,569 Ordinary
Shares, representing 0.06% of the Existing Issued Share
Capital."
The person responsible for this
announcement is Nick Beal, Company Secretary.
Contacts:
Contacts:
Amigo Holdings PLC
|
investors@amigo.me
|
Nick Beal
|
Company Secretary
|
|
|
Media Enquiries
|
Amigoloans@lansons.com
|
Ed Hooper
|
07783 387713
|
|
|
Corporate Broker
Lucy Williams / Duncan
Vasey
|
Peterhouse Capital
Limited
020 7469 0936
|
|
|
Sponsor
|
Beaumont Cornish
|
|
0207 628 3396
|
Notes to editors:
About Amigo
Amigo is a public limited company
registered in England and Wales with registered number 10024479.
The Amigo Shares are listed on the Official List of the London
Stock Exchange. On 23 March 2023 Amigo announced that its
subsidiaries had ceased offering new loans, with immediate effect,
and would start the orderly solvent wind-down of the business.
Amigo's group provided guarantor loans in the UK from 2005 to 2020
and unsecured loans under the RewardRate brand from October 2022,
offering access to mid‐cost credit to those who were unable to
borrow from traditional lenders due to their credit histories. The
back book of loans is in the process of being run off with all net
proceeds due to creditors under a Court approved Scheme of
Arrangement. Amigo Loans Ltd and Amigo Management Services Ltd are
authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct
Authority.
Additional Information
Beaumont Cornish Limited ("Beaumont Cornish") is the Company's
Sponsor as defined in the FCA Listing Rules and is authorised and
regulated by the FCA. Beaumont Cornish Limited is acting
exclusively for the Company and for no one else in relation to the
matters described in this announcement and is not advising any
other person and accordingly will not be responsible to anyone
other than the Company for providing the protections afforded to
clients of Beaumont Cornish Limited, or for providing advice in
relation to the contents of this announcement or any matter
referred to in it.
This announcement is not intended to, and does not, constitute
or form part of any offer, invitation, or the solicitation of an
offer to purchase, otherwise acquire, subscribe for, sell, or
otherwise dispose of, any securities, or the solicitation of any
vote or approval in any jurisdiction, pursuant to this announcement
or otherwise.
ENDS