16 August 2024
Everest
Global plc
(“Company”)
Issue
of £3.5 million of New Convertible Loan Notes
The
directors of the Company are pleased to announce that on
15 August 2024 the Company
constituted a loan note instrument pursuant to which the Company
may issue up to £50 million loan notes in tranches of integral
multiples of £250,000 at any time. Each tranche of loan notes will
have an initial term of 3 years from the date of the certificate
being issued to the relevant noteholder (the “Loan Note
Instrument”). Pursuant to the terms of the Loan Note Instrument the
Company has issued 14 unsecured convertible loan notes (“CLNs”) to
Surich Real Estate Opportunity Fund SPC (“SPC” or the “Noteholder”
respectively) in an aggregate value of £3.5m. The Company will
update the market on receipt of the funds which are expected the
week ending 23 August
2024. SPC is wholly owned and controlled by Mr Ziwei Peng, Mr Peng is the owner and controller
of Golden Nice International Group Limited, which holds a 24.55%
interest in the issued share capital of the Company. Given Mr
Peng’s holding in the Company, the issue of the CLNs to SPC is a
related party transaction for the purposes of Rule 7.3 of the
Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.
The
Company is issuing the CLNs to fund the Company's working capital
and capital expenditure requirements for the time being and in
order to work towards executing its strategy to undertake one or
more further acquisitions of businesses (either shares or assets)
in the beverage distribution and production sector in the UK and
the rest of Europe as set out in
its prospectus dated 31 October
2023.
The
material terms of the Loan Note Instruments are:
-
the
aggregate principal amount of the loan notes is limited to £50m and
they will be issued in integral multiples of £250,000;
-
the loan
notes issued pursuant to the Loan Notes Instrument
are
unsecured;
-
the term
of each tranche of loan notes is 3 years from the date of the
certificate of the applicable loan notes;
-
they are
convertible into ordinary shares of £0.02 each in the issued share
capital of the Company (“Ordinary Shares”);
-
the
noteholder will not be able to convert loan notes in the first 12
months from the date of issue of such loan notes;
-
the
noteholder will not be able to convert loan notes if in any rolling
12 month period Everest has already issued 20% of its entire issued
share capital, unless:
-
a
prospectus is published by the Company which includes a disclosure
referring to the conversion of such loan notes and admission of the
new Ordinary Shares to the
Official List of the Financial Conduct Authority and to trading on
the London Stock Exchange’s main market for listed
securities;
and
-
the issue
of such new Ordinary Shares will not result in such noteholder,
together with any persons acting in concert with it, holding 30 per
cent. or more of the voting rights of the Company at any
time;
-
a
noteholder will not be able to convert loan notes to the extent
that such noteholder, together with anyone acting in concert with
them, will hold 30% or more of the voting rights in Everest,
unless
independent shareholders have given their approval and the Takeover
Panel has waived the obligation to make an offer for the entire
issued share capital of Everest;
-
the
noteholder may request the payment of interest on the anniversary
date of the issue of the loan notes to them or request that the
interest is rolled up and capitalised;
-
the
interest rate that will be applied to outstanding loan notes s is
6% per annum;
-
the
conversion price of the loan notes is a price per Ordinary Share of
£0.04;
-
at the end
of the term of each tranche of loan notes (or such other date that
the Company notifies the relevant noteholders in writing in respect
of such tranche of loan notes), Everest will repay the principal
amount of such tranche of loan notes not converted, plus accrued
interest, by issuing new ordinary shares or cash (at the Company’s
election) ; and
-
the CLNs
can only be transferred to a party approved by the
Directors.
As at
today’s date, excluding any accrued interest, £254,450 of
previously issued convertible loan notes remain outstanding
pursuant to convertible loan note deeds (all of which are held by
Golden Nice International Group Limited, a company wholly owned by
Mr Ziwei Peng), further details of
which are set out in the table below:
Convertible
Loan Note Issue
|
Date
of Instrument
|
|
Number
of Convertible Loan Notes outstanding
|
Old
Redemption Date/ New Redemption Date
|
Conversion
Price
|
£250,000
unsecured convertible loan notes of £0.05 each
|
1 October
2018 (as amended on 5 October 2020 and on 29 July 2022 and 29
September 2023)
|
£162,500
|
3,250,000
|
30
September 2023/ 31 March 2025
|
£0.05 per
Ordinary Share
|
£750,000
unsecured convertible loan notes of £0.05 each
|
31 March
2021 (as amended on 29 July 2022 and 24 January 2023 and 29
September 2023)
|
£91,950
|
1,839,000
|
30
September 2023/ 31 March
2025
|
£0.05 per
Ordinary Share
|
Total:
|
£254,450
|
5,089,000
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of
Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014 (which forms part of domestic
UK law pursuant to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act
2018).
The
directors of the Company accept responsibility for the content of
this announcement.
For
further information please contact:
Everest
Global plc
|
|
|
|
Andy Sui,
Chief Executive Officer
Rob Scott,
Non-Executive Director
|
+44 (0)
776 775 1787
+27
(0)84 6006
001
|
|
|
Cairn
Financial Advisers LLP
|
|
Jo Turner
/ Emily Staples
|
+44 (0) 20
7213 0885 / +44 (0)20 7213 0897
|
|
|