Approval of Investment Advisory Agreement

RNS Number : 3461V

Gresham House PLC

06 August 2015

 

6 August 2015

Gresham House plc (AIM: GHE)

Approval of Investment Advisory Agreement

The Board of Gresham House plc ("Gresham House") is pleased that today the shareholders of SPARK Ventures plc (AIM: SPK "SPARK") have approved the change in SPARK's Investing Policy to pursue a new Strategic Public Equity ("SPE") investment strategy in partnership with Gresham House, as set out in the Gresham House announcement on 21 July 2015 and Notice of General Meeting circulated to SPARK shareholders on 22 July 2015.

Gresham House will invest a total of £6.4 million in SPARK following which Gresham House will have an interest in 706,806 of SPARK's issued ordinary shares ("Shares") representing approximately 18.39 per cent. of SPARK's Shares and approximately 19.17 per cent. of SPARK's total voting rights following completion of the placing, open offer and asset swaps. The following key members of the Gresham House management team, SPE investment team and investment committee have acquired Shares pursuant to the Fundraising:

	New Ordinary Shares subscribed pursuant to the Fundraising*	% of Total Voting Rights following Admission
Tony Dalwood	11,111	0.30%
Graham Bird	19,444	0.53%
Bruce Carnegie Brown	11,111	0.30%
Michael Phillips	2,778	0.08%
Rupert Robinson	2,778	0.08%

Under the Investment Management Agreement, Gresham House Asset Management Ltd ("GHAM"), the Company's specialist asset management subsidiary, will receive initially as adviser and then as manager (when regulatory approval is received), a fee of 0.125 per cent. per month of the net asset value of the SPARK portfolio. The initial portfolio value will be approximately £39.1 million. In addition, GHAM will be entitled to a performance fee of 15 per cent. of the increase in net asset value per share of SPARK over a 7 per cent. hurdle rate.

Anthony Dalwood, Chief Executive of Gresham House commented:

"We are pleased that the proposed change to the investing policy has been approved by the SPARK shareholders. This mandate represents an important step for Gresham House as we deliver on our plans to develop as a specialist asset manager of differentiated and illiquid alternative investment strategies. SPARK is the first fund that our SPE investment team will manage and we will target superior returns by focusing on inefficient areas of the market, taking block stakes in smaller companies and constructively engaging to identify and support significant value creation catalysts."

Enquiries:

Montfort Communications

Gay Collins / Rory King                                   07798 626282 / 07917 086227

Gresham House plc
Anthony (Tony) Dalwood                                020 3837 6270

Gresham House Asset Management

Graham Bird                                                   020 3757 5613

Westhouse Securities Ltd
Robert Finlay / Richard Johnson                    020 7601 6100

 

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