Investment in HomeOwners Alliance

RNS Number : 5248Q

ULS Technology PLC

01 March 2016

 

ULS Technology plc

("ULS", the "Group" or the "Company")

Investment in HomeOwners Alliance and Issue of Equity

ULS Technology plc (AIM:ULS), the provider of online B2B platforms for the UK conveyancing and financial intermediary markets, announces that it has acquired 35% of the issued share capital of HomeOwners Alliance Limited ("HomeOwners Alliance" or "HOA") (the "Investment").

HomeOwners Alliance

The HomeOwners Alliance website was originally launched in 2012 as a Membership Organisation offering independent expert property related articles and advice to homeowners and prospective homeowners in the UK.

Today, HOA is a leading UK property website offering third party services for homeowners and those buying and selling domestic property in the UK.  The website received almost three million visits in 2015, and, at current rates of growth, is on track to receive around five million visits in 2016.

Investment Rationale

The Directors believe that the Investment positions ULS at the forefront of the rapidly growing business-to-consumer property services sector by linking to a site receiving high volumes of relevant traffic and expects to see increased business-to-consumer transaction volumes through ULS' proprietary comparison technology platforms.

Under the terms of the Investment, ULS will integrate its "eConveyancer" technology into the HOA website, allowing visitors to the HOA website to obtain a conveyancing quote from ULS' panel of solicitors firms and conveyancers. The Directors believe that this will increase business-to-consumer volumes through eConveyancer.

Once this integration has been successfully completed, ULS will collaborate with HOA to monetise other services, such as ULS' new estate agency comparison service. This new comparison service enables property vendors to compare, search and instruct both traditional and online Estate Agents, all via one platform. This service is the first of its kind and aims to help sellers of domestic property make a more informed decision about which estate agent to list their property with. HOA will retain its editorial independence and will also continue to promote third party products and services where they fit with its ethos and values.

Investment Consideration

ULS has acquired an initial 35% of the issued share capital of HomeOwners Alliance Limited for a total consideration of £575,000 of which £520,000 is to be satisfied through the Company's existing healthy cash resources with the remaining £55,000 to be satisfied through the issue of 100,182 new ordinary shares of 0.4p in the Company to be allotted to Paula Higgins, founder and CEO of HOA (the "New Shares"). ULS has also lent £100,000 to HOA to repay shareholder debt outstanding to Paula Higgins.

The New Shares will rank pari passu with the existing shares of the Company. The Company has applied for the New Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and Admission is expected to occur at 8.00 am on 4 March 2016.

Following Admission, the Company shall have 64,828,057 ordinary shares of 0.4p each in issue, each with voting rights, which figure may be used by shareholders in the Company 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, the share capital of the Company under the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules. The Company does not hold any Shares in Treasury.

Commenting on the investment, Ben Thompson, Chief Executive Officer, said: 

"ULS is delighted to have the opportunity to make an investment in this exciting, growing business which is focussed on the property sector within which ULS also operates. Our conveyancing and estate agency comparison products which offer choice and value to the customer fit perfectly with HOA. In partnership with HOA we expect to provide expertise and funding to help them continue to grow while providing a direct-to-consumer platform for our products that fits both companies' corporate values.

"We very much look forward to working closely with Paula and the HOA team and are excited about what we can achieve together."

Enquiries:

ULS Technology plc		Tel: [phone]
Peter Opperman, Chairman
Ben Thompson, CEO
John Williams, Finance Director
Numis Securities Limited (Nomad & Broker)		Tel: [phone]
Stuart Skinner / Paul Gillam, Corporate Advisory
Michael Burke, Corporate Broking
Walbrook PR Limited	[e-mail] or Tel: [phone]
Paul Cornelius
Helen Cresswell
Paul Whittington

 

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