Further re Capcon EGM

Christie Group PLC 27 March 2006 Christie Group plc Request for postponement of Capcon Holdings plc EGM and For provision of full information to Capcon shareholders Christie Group plc notes the announcement made by Capcon Holdings plc on Friday 24 March 2006 at 4.22 pm. The Board of Capcon have said that, in light of the 'comments and actions of Christie Group plc', they will not propose Resolution 5 at the EGM convened for 29 March 2006. This is the resolution authorising the disposal of Capcon's stocktaking activity to Lakesong Trading Limited, a company owned and controlled by two directors of Capcon. This step has been taken after Christie Group made a legally binding offer to the Capcon Board to buy the stocktaking business identical in all material respects to the Lakesong offer save only that the consideration is £1,000,000 rather than £700,000 (the 'Christie Offer'). The Christie Offer remains open for acceptance by the Board of Capcon and Christie has confirmed that it is willing to complete the acquisition on 29 March 2006. Capcon had put forward the disposal to Lakesong as an alternative to the issue of a series of Convertible Secured Loan Notes which will mostly be subscribed by directors of the Company. The Board of Capcon continues to recommend that the company issues these Loan Notes to raise only a very modest amount of money, the effect of which will be to water down all existing holders and pass control to a concert party including some of the directors. The conversion price under the loan notes is 5p per share. Christie Group plc notes that the closing middle market price of a Capcon share was as high as 14p on 24 March 2006 and has remained well above the conversion price of the loan notes. At no time has Capcon made available to shareholders any current trading information or commentary on the sufficiency of working capital which would flow from the proposals being put to the EGM. Christie Group believes that this information is essential to shareholders to consider whether to approve the issue of the Loan Notes instead of the disposal to Christie Group of the stocktaking activities. Christie Group, which is a 14.99% shareholder of Capcon, has made repeated requests to Capcon's Board for up-to-date financial information (not including commercially sensitive information) to allow it to assess the proposed issue of Loan Notes and to consider whether its offer to buy the stocktaking activities can be improved or indeed whether another proposal can be made by Christie Group for the benefit of all the shareholders of Capcon. No such information has been provided and no reason for this has been given. It is clear that events have moved on significantly since the publication of the circular to Capcon's shareholders on 3 March 2006. In particular, the current share price of Capcon is nearly double the conversion price under the Convertible Loan Notes. Christie Group believes that it is manifestly in the better interest of all shareholders that the EGM be adjourned for a short period, and that Christie Group be given access to the non-commercially sensitive information referred to above for the purposes of considering whether its offer to buy the stocktaking activities can be improved or indeed whether another proposal can be made by Christie Group for the benefit of all the shareholders of Capcon. Christie Group will be proposing a resolution to that effect at the EGM and urges all shareholders to vote for such an adjournment. 27 March 2006 Enquiries: Christie Group plc David Rugg Chief Executive Robert Zenker Finance Director 020 7227 0707 Charles Stanley Securities Philip Davies 020 7953 2457 END This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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