Re Loan Agreement

Farsight PLC 01 December 2003 Loan Agreement Introduction In the Chairman's statement included in the report and accounts for the year ended 31 May 2003 ('Report and Accounts') released on 28 November 2003, Farsight plc ('Farsight' or 'Company') announced that it had negotiated a conditional secured convertible loan facility of up to £750,000 (the 'Loan'). The Loan is required to provide additional working capital. In view of its nature, the Loan is conditional upon shareholders' approval, and a circular containing details of the Loan and convening an extraordinary general meeting to approve the Loan is being sent to shareholders today. Background to and reasons for the Loan As reported in the Report and Accounts, significant progress has been and continues to be made in the Group's monitoring and e-surveillance business. However, the liquidation of the AIMS business in March 2003 and the existence of certain legacy debts has meant that the Company has not yet been able to achieve consistently a cash neutral position on a monthly basis. As a result the Company has exhausted its cash reserves and as a consequence the Company urgently requires additional working capital. Robert Davies, John Dalton and Mike James (the 'Investors') have agreed to provide the Loan of £750,000 to the Company, which the Directors believe, will enable the Company to repay its legacy debts and provide sufficient working capital for the Company's present requirements. The Board intends to drawdown £250,000 of the Loan within five business days of approval of the EGM resolutions to meet the immediate cash requirements of the Group and to enable it to continue trading whilst the cash flow position improves. The Board anticipates that the Group will continue to make losses in the immediate future but that in 2004 the Group should start to see a positive cash flow from its current operations. In addition to meeting the Group's working capital requirements the Board intends to use the Loan to invest in the continued development of the Group's businesses. Details of the Loan On 28 November 2003 the Investors and the Company entered into an agreement pursuant to which the Investors agreed to make a loan facility of up to £750,000 available to the Group. Under the terms of that agreement the Loan can be drawn down in three tranches of £250,000 subject to certain conditions precedent being satisfied (one of these is the approval of the Loan at an EGM). The Loan is to be secured by a debenture from each of Farsight plc, Farsight Security Limited and e-surveillance Software Limited and a cross company guarantee from each of these three companies and is to be non-interest bearing. The Investors have an option to convert the outstanding balance of the Loan into Ordinary Shares at a conversion price of 1p at any time prior to the second anniversary of the date of agreement but if that option is not exercised then the Loan shall be repaid on the second anniversary of the date of the agreement. The City Code on Takeovers and Mergers Under Rule 9 of the City Code ('Rule 9'), when any person or group of persons acquires shares which, when taken together with shares already held by him or shares held or acquired by persons acting in concert with him, carry 30 per cent. or more of the voting rights of a company which is subject to the City Code, that person is normally required to make a general offer to all the shareholders of that company at the highest price paid by him, or any person acting in concert with him, within the preceding twelve months. Under the City Code, a concert party arises where persons acting in concert pursuant to an agreement or understanding (whether formal or informal) actively co-operate, through the acquisition by them of shares in a company, to obtain or consolidate control of that company. Control means holdings, or aggregate holdings, of shares carrying 30 per cent. or more of the voting rights of the company, irrespective of whether the holding or holdings give de facto control. The Investors and their connected persons (the 'Concert Party') currently hold 119,806,788 Ordinary Shares representing approximately 39.61 per cent. of the Existing Ordinary Shares. Immediately following the admission of 3,250,000 new ordinary shares being issued immediately following the EGM, the Concert Party will hold 119,806,788 Ordinary Shares, representing approximately 39.19 per cent. of the enlarged issued Ordinary Share capital. In the absence of any other changes to the Company's issued Ordinary Share capital, the exercise of the conversion rights of the Loan, assuming full drawdown and conversion, would result in the Concert Party having a maximum aggregate shareholding representing approximately 51.17 per cent. of the issued share capital of the Company. The Panel on Takeovers and Mergers has agreed, subject to EGM Resolution 1 being passed on a poll by the independent shareholders (being shareholders other than the Concert Party) at the Extraordinary General Meeting, to waive the obligation of the Investors to make a general offer to shareholders under Rule 9 which would otherwise arise upon conversion of the Loan (the 'Waiver'). The Waiver is only in respect of any holding of Ordinary Shares arising from the conversion of the Loan. Any acquisition of Ordinary Shares by other means will be subject to the normal provisions of the City Code. Shareholders should note that, assuming full drawdown and conversion of the Loan, the Concert Party will control in excess of 50 per cent. of the issued Ordinary Share capital of the Company. For so long as the Concert Party remain acting in concert and maintain their aggregate shareholding above 50 per cent., further purchases by the Concert Party will be unrestricted by Rule 9 and the Concert Party will not incur a further obligation under Rule 9 to make a general offer, provided that no individual member of the Concert Party acquires a holding of 30 per cent. or more of the Ordinary Share capital. The Investors have confirmed to the Directors that it would be their intention that, following the issue of Ordinary Shares to them pursuant to a conversion of the Loan, the businesses of the Group be continued in substantially the same manner as at present, with no major changes, and that they have no intention following any such issue to make any material amendment to the existing employment rights of the Company's employees. Extraordinary General Meeting An Extraordinary General Meeting of the Company is to be held at the offices of M and A Solicitors, Kenneth Pollard House, 5-19 Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff CF11 9AB at 11.15 a.m. on 29 December 2003 (or as soon thereafter as the Annual General Meeting convened for the same day has concluded or adjourned) to approve resolutions required to implement the Loan and the Waiver. Recommendation The Directors, who have been so advised by Rowan Dartington & Co. Limited, the Company's nominated adviser, consider the Loan to be in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders as a whole. The Directors have unanimously recommended shareholders to vote in favour of the resolutions to be proposed at the Extraordinary General Meeting as they have undertaken to do in respect of their own beneficial holdings which, in aggregate amount to 17,987,621 ordinary shares representing approximately 5.95 per cent. of the Company's existing ordinary shares. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange E
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