Acquisition, Management Agreement and Share Issue

RNS Number : 6091H

Minoan Group PLC

01 June 2011

 



1 June 2011

Minoan Group Plc

("Minoan" or the "Group" or the "Company") 

Acquisition, Management Agreement and Share Issue

Minoan Group Plc is pleased to announce that it has acquired a 19.9% interest in Stewart Travel Centre ("Stewart") for a consideration of £278,100 to be wholly settled in Minoan shares. Simultaneously, the Company has signed a management agreement with the owners for the future operation of Stewart.

Acquisition

Stewart, which also trades as Scotlands Cruise Centre, was formed in 1972 by Willie and Ina Stewart and employs 80 people. In addition to its cruise division it also includes Stewart Corporate Travel together with a golf section and an affinity division.

In its financial accounts to 30 April 2010 Stewart had a net trading profit (before exceptional items) of £149,000 on sales (being total transaction value) of £21.3 million. 

Willie Stewart is the Chairman of Advantage, a consortium of 800 independent travel agencies, and was recently awarded an Outstanding Contribution Award for his contribution to retail travel at the Agent Achievement Awards in London.

The acquisition of the interest in Stewart, due to its size relative to the Group, is deemed to be a substantial transaction under the AIM Rules.

Commenting on the acquisition, Minoan Chairman, Christopher Egleton said:

"We are delighted to have added Stewart to our growing family of distribution businesses. The management agreement will allow us to assist Stewart, initially via our Cruise 118 agreement, and I am sure Willie Stewart's knowledge and experience will be invaluable in our plans for the future.

The Directors continue to assess the acquisition of a number of complementary businesses in the travel and leisure sector.

As stated previously, these acquisitions will be instrumental in the creation of additional shareholder value as we implement our strategy." 

Share Issue

The Company has agreed to issue 1,780,410 new ordinary shares at 15.62 pence per share to settle the consideration for the acquisition of Stewart (see above).

The Directors' beneficial shareholdings are 1,841,223 Ordinary Shares, representing 2.05% of the issued share capital as enlarged following this share issue.

Application has been made for the 1,780,410 new ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission") and it is expected that Admission will be effective from 7 June 2011. Following Admission, there will be a total of 89,655,521 ordinary shares in issue. This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, Minoan under the FSA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

For further information visit www.minoangroup.com or contact:

Minoan Group Plc

Christopher Egleton                                              [e-mail]

Bill Cole                                                                020 8253 4305

Seymour Pierce Limited                                     020 7107 8000

Nicola Marrin/David Foreman (Corporate Finance)  

Marianne Woods (Corporate Broking)

Rivington Street Corporate Finance Limited   020 7562 3384

Dru Edmonstone

Bishopsgate Communications Limited              020 7562 3350                                

Nick Rome/Michael Kinirons      

 

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