Disposal of Viking Fund Managers Limited

RNS Number : 2638W

Braveheart Investment Group plc

16 April 2019

 

Prior to publication, certain information contained within this announcement was deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR"). With the publication of this announcement, this information is now considered to be in the public domain.

16 April 2019

Braveheart Investment Group plc

("Braveheart" or the "Company")

Disposal of Viking Fund Managers Limited

Braveheart Investment Group plc (AIM: BRH) ("Braveheart"), the fund management and strategic investor group, is pleased to announce that, further to the announcement on 13 December 2018, completion has now been achieved on the sale of the entire issued ordinary share capital of its subsidiary company, Viking Fund Managers Limited ("Viking"). The consideration paid consists of a payment of £110,000 in cash, and an additional payment, estimated to be approximately £170,500, due to be paid in cash once the performance fee of an existing fund management contract has been agreed with the client in early 2020 ("Performance Fee"). Furthermore, cash held by Viking at the date of completion, which totalled £72,000, was not included in the sale and has now been transferred to Braveheart and the intercompany loans payable by Braveheart, Strathtay Ventures Limited (another subsidiary of Braveheart)("Strathtay") and Ridings Early Growth Investment Company Limited (another subsidiary of Braveheart)("REGIC") to Viking, amounting to approximately £650,000, were forgiven immediately prior to completion of the sale.

Not included within the sale are Ridings Holdings Limited ("RHL") and it's wholly owned subsidiary REGIC. The entire issued share capital of RHL was transferred to Braveheart before the date of completion.

In the year ended 31 March 2018, Viking achieved a profit before tax of £404,388 on revenues of £715,523. However, due to the declining fees that are being generated from existing contracts, the unaudited revenue of Viking for the year ended 31 March 2019 is estimated to be approximately £478,000 and the unaudited profit for the same period is estimated to be approximately £75,000. If no new contracts were entered into by Viking, the revenues for the year ending 31 March 2020 are expected to be significantly lower as the management contract for the Finance Yorkshire Equity Fund expires on 31 December 2019, as has been previously disclosed. As at 31 March 2018, Viking had audited net assets of £794,474, including intercompany loan balances of £457,171 due from Braveheart, Strathtay and REGIC, investments in RHL and REGIC of £45,000, an accrual for the Performance Fee of £174,939 and cash of £42,541. None of these assets are included as part of the sale of Viking.

It is proposed to use the sale proceeds from the sale of Viking for working capital purposes generally.

Despite the disposal of Viking, the Directors confirm that they intend to actively continue to run the fund management business and will continue to tender for opportunities as and when they arise.

Related Party Transaction

The purchasers of Viking are Jonathan Freeman, Ian Brown and James Bromhead.  Jonathan Freeman is a Non-Executive Director of Braveheart and a director of Viking and, therefore, the transaction is treated as a related party transaction under the AIM Rules. Ian Brown is currently a consultant to Viking.

The independent Directors, Trevor Brown and Viv Hallam, consider, having consulted with Allenby Capital Limited, the Company's Nominated Adviser, that the terms of the sale of the entire ordinary share capital of Viking are fair and reasonable insofar as the shareholders of Braveheart are concerned.

For further information:

Braveheart Investment Group plc Viv Hallam, Executive Director	Tel: [phone]
Allenby Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker) David Worlidge / Nicholas Chambers	Tel: [phone]
Peterhouse Capital Limited (Joint Broker) Heena Karani / Lucy Williams	Tel: [phone]

 

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