10 May
2017
Clear Leisure
plc
("Clear Leisure", "the Company" or
“the Group”)
Debt Buy-Back and
New Loan Facility
Clear Leisure (AIM: CLP), the leisure and property focused
investment company, is pleased to announce it has bought back
EUR 3.14 million of the debt of one
of its subsidiaries previously owed to three Italian banks at a
76.15 per cent discount.
This represents a pro-rata improvement, after costs, of
approximately EUR 2.394 million
(GBP 2.014 million) in the Company’s
consolidated balance sheet, equivalent to 0.70p per share.
New loan
facility
Eufingest S.A. (“Eufingest”), the Company’s largest shareholder,
has provided a new convertible loan of EUR
1.2 million (GBP 1.009
million).
The new loan is being used in part to complete the EUR 3.14 million debt buy-back. Including the new
loan, the total of loans drawn and outstanding with Eufingest is
now EUR 2.475 million (approximately
GBP 2.083 million), including accrued
interest. The Board has agreed with Eufingest to bring together all
the outstanding balances into one loan of EUR 2.475 million repayable by 28 April 2020 (the “Consolidated Loan”).
The Consolidated Loan will carry an interest rate of 1 per cent
and will be secured on certain of the Group’s assets. At any time
before 28 April 2020, the Company may
repay the Consolidated Loan without penalty and Eufingest may
convert the Consolidated Loan into shares at the rate of 0.89p per
share being a premium of 0.19p on the closing share price on
9 May 2017. The conversion price has
been calculated by taking the weighted average conversion price of
all previous loans and of the new loan which has a conversion price
of 1p.
Eufingest is the beneficial holder of more than 10 per cent of
the ordinary share capital of the Company. Eufingest is
therefore a "related party" for the purposes of the AIM Rules and
the Directors of the Company (each of whom is independent from
Eufingest), having consulted with the Company's NOMAD, consider the
terms of the Consolidated Loan to be fair and reasonable insofar as
shareholders are concerned.
Francesco Gardin, Chairman and
CEO of Clear Leisure, commented, “We aim to take any
opportunities to materially strengthen our balance sheet by
reducing the amount of debt owed by some of our subsidiaries to
third parties. The new agreement with our longest standing
shareholder Eufingest will also assist in the realisation of the
Group’s assets.”
-ends-
For further information please
contact:
Clear Leisure
plc
+39 335 296573
Francesco Gardin, CEO and
Executive Chairman
ZAI Corporate Finance (Nominated
Adviser)
+44 (0)20 7060 2220
Tim Cofman/Peter
Trevelyan-Clark
Peterhouse Corporate Finance
(Broker)
+44 (0) 20 7469 0935
Lucy Williams / Heena Karani
Cadogan Leander (Financial
PR)
+44 (0) 7795 168 157
Christian Taylor-Wilkinson
About Clear Leisure Plc
Clear Leisure plc (AIM: CLP) is an AIM listed investment company
with a portfolio of companies primarily encompassing the leisure
and real estate sectors mainly in Italy. The focus of management is to pursue
the monetisation of all of the Company’s existing assets, through
selected realisations, court-led recoveries of misappropriated
assets and substantial debt-recovery processes. For further
information, please visit, www.clearleisure.com