TIDMBANK
RNS Number : 1246Y
Fiinu PLC
29 December 2023
29 December 2023
Fiinu Plc
("Fiinu", the "Company" or the "Group")
Board Changes & Change of Auditor
Fiinu, a fintech group, creator of the Plugin Overdraft(R),
provides an update on its proposed Board changes and change of
auditor.
Board changes
On 29 September 2023, the Company announced that David Hopton,
Jerry Loy, Huw Evans and Chris Sweeney would leave the Company's
Board on 31 December 2023 in the absence of any new potential
funding developments. The Company can confirm that Jerry Loy, Huw
Evans and Chris Sweeney will step down from the Company's Board
with effect from 31 December 2023. David Hopton has now agreed to
remain as Non-executive Chairman, but has agreed to defer his
remuneration subject to raising sufficient capital to re-apply for
a banking licence.
From 1 January 2024, the Company's Board of Directors will
consist of David Hopton (Non-executive Chairman), Simon Leathers
(Senior Independent Non-executive Director) and Marko Sjoblom
(Founder and Executive Director); Marko will be appointed as Group
CEO from that date with his remuneration being deferred, subject to
the Company being successful with the re-application process. The
Company will also look to recruit further independent non-executive
directors, as appropriate, to satisfy its corporate governance
requirements. Further announcements will be made as
appropriate.
Change of Auditor
Mazars LLP has stepped down as auditors following the decision
by the Company to appoint an audit firm that is aligned to the
current stage of the Company's development. F. W. Smith, Riches
& Co (a member of MGI Worldwide) has been appointed by the
Board as the Group's new independent auditor with immediate effect
and will undertake the audit for the year-ending 31 December 2023.
The re-appointment of F. W. Smith, Riches & Co for the
financial year ending 31 December 2024 will be subject to approval
by shareholders at the next Annual General Meeting of the Company
to be held in 2024.
Maintaining current strategy
As previously announced, the Board's focus remains on raising
the necessary capital to support Fiinu 2 Limited's re-application
for a UK banking licence with which to launch its Plugin
Overdraft(R). Given the steps taken to preserve existing funding,
ahead of making the re-application in order to ensure the required
level of technological and regulatory readiness for the business to
re-initiate the process, a hiring process will need to be
undertaken by the Board. It is not possible at this time to
quantify the time period when this will happen.
Further funding requirements
The Company will continue to review all its options in respect
of the business, including further discussions to source the
additional funding required for it to re-apply to the regulators to
re-commence the banking licence application for Fiinu 2 Limited. As
part of the continued review of its cashflow requirements, the
Company will look to raise further funding to support at least the
12-month period from the issuance of the 31 December 2023 Report
and Accounts, whilst it seeks to raise the capital for the
re-application process. As previously announced the required
capital for the re-application process is between GBP35m - GBP42m.
Further announcements in respect of the interim funding
requirements will be made in due course.
Future Intentions and Strategy
On 29 September 2023, the Company announced an operational and
strategic update. The Company does not intend to change the current
strategy and will announce any further updates in due course.
Any fundamental change of strategy that involves the cessation
of operations, or the sale of all or substantially all of the
Group's business and assets (for example, the Group's technology
stack and other intellectual property) would require the approval
of shareholders in a general meeting in compliance with AIM Rule
15, but no decision to take this course of action has been
made.
Commenting, David Hopton, Chairman of Fiinu, said:
"Although, in the current economic climate, the Directors
believe there is a definite need for the Plugin Overdraft(R) to
support customers with their credit needs, funding conditions have
remained challenging for businesses at the pre-revenue stage such
as Fiinu.
"In such conditions, the Board have had to take some difficult
decisions to preserve cash and to give the Company every chance to
source the additional funding required for it to re-apply to the
regulators to re-commence the banking licence application for Fiinu
2 Limited. The proposed Board changes are also being made to reduce
ongoing costs to preserve cash. I would like to put on record the
Board's and my own thanks to Chris Sweeney for his tireless efforts
to get the Group to the position where, subject to funding being
raised, it can relatively quickly re-apply for a banking licence.
On behalf of all the Board, I wish Chris and all his colleagues who
have left Fiinu well for their future careers .
"Finally, the new Board is committed to keeping our shareholders
abreast of any important developments and I thank them for their
patience as the Company continues to engage with potential
investors as it has been doing for many months."
Market Abuse Regulation ('MAR') Disclosure
Certain information contained in this announcement would have
been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the
Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 ('MAR'), which is part of
UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, until
the release of this announcement.
ENDS
Enquiries:
Fiinu plc via SPARK
Dr. Marko Sjoblom
www.fiinu.com
SPARK Advisory Partners Limited (Nomad) Tel: +44 (0) 203 368 3550
Mark Brady / Adam Dawes
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Joint Tel: +44 (0) 207 470 0470
Broker)
Bruce Fraser / Ezgi Senturk
Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (Joint Tel: +44 (0)207 886 2500
Broker)
Stephen Jones / Atholl Tweedie (Corporate
Finance)
Hugh Rich (Corporate Broking)
About Fiinu
Fiinu, founded in 2017, is a fintech group, that developed the
Plugin Overdraft(R) which is an unbundled overdraft solution that
allows customers to have an overdraft without changing their
existing bank. The underlying bank Independent Plugin Overdraft(R)
technology platform is bank agnostic, that therefore enables it to
serve all other banks' customers. Open Banking allows Fiinu's
Plugin Overdraft(R) to attach ("plugin") to the customer's existing
primary bank account, no matter which bank they may use. Fiinu's
vision is built around Open Banking, and it believes that it
increases competition and innovation in UK banking.
For more information, please visit www.fiinu.com
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END
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