Acquisition & Placing

Spice Holdings PLC 05 September 2005 ACQUISITION AND CONDITIONAL PLACING Spice Holdings plc ('Spice' or the 'Company') is pleased to announce the acquisition of Circle Britannia Limited ('Circle Britannia') and ServiceLine (Nationwide) Limited ('ServiceLine') for an aggregate consideration of £15.0 million (the 'Acquisition') and the conditional placing by KBC Peel Hunt Ltd of 7,009,346 new ordinary shares of 10 pence each in the Company at a price of 214 pence per new ordinary share (the 'Placing Shares') with institutional and other investors to raise approximately £15.0 million - approximately £14.5 million after expenses - (the 'Placing'). KBC Peel Hunt has also conditionally placed with institutional and other investors 586,144 existing ordinary shares on behalf of certain shareholders in the Company at a price per existing ordinary share of 214 pence. The Placing has been fully underwritten by KBC Peel Hunt Ltd. Key points: * Acquisition of two profitable, nationwide, commercial facilities management businesses - Circle Britannia and ServiceLine - for £15.0 million, funded through bank debt * Acquisition moves Spice into new sector, which the Directors believe is fast growing, offers significant future potential and provides the Group with excellent cross selling opportunities * Circle Britannia and ServiceLine had an aggregated operating profit before interest, tax and amortisation of £1.5 million in the year to 31 January 2005 * Conditional placing of 7,009,346 million new ordinary shares of 10 pence each at 214 pence per share to raise approximately £15.0 million * Placing funds, after expenses, will be used to re-pay draw-down on the Company's bank debt facilities in order to maintain acquisition funding credit facilities * Admission to trading on AIM of the Placing Shares is expected to take place on 7 September 2005 Circle Britannia Circle Britannia is a provider of outsourced facilities services to corporate clients and reinstatement services for major insurers. The business is split into three divisions: - the reactive division provides planned and reactive Mechanical & Electrical ('M&E') and fabric maintenance services; - the small works division was created due to the demand of a number of its clients to perform small project based works, which are not day to day repairs; and - the claims division deals with the management of insurance claims on behalf of major insurance companies. Major customers of Circle Britannia include Norwich Union, Starbucks, Waterstone's and Dixons. Circle Britannia generated revenues of approximately £16.2 million in the year to 31 January 2005 and had net assets of approximately £1.3 million. ServiceLine ServiceLine provides outsourced maintenance helpdesk services delivered either as part of an integrated facilities management service, incorporating Circle Britannia's facilities service operation, or as a stand alone service managing client's existing suppliers. Major customers of ServiceLine include Starbucks and Waterstone's. ServiceLine generated revenues of approximately £1.0 million in the year to 31 January 2005 and had net assets of approximately £0.4 million. Together, the businesses had an aggregated operating profit before interest, tax and amortisation ('EBITA') of £1.5 million in the year to 31 January 2005. The consideration represents a multiple of 9.5 times the aggregated statutory operating profits for the year to 31 January 2005. Rationale for the Acquisition As part of the Company's strategy to continue its development through organic growth and acquisition opportunities, the Acquisition provides Spice with a bridgehead into the commercial facilities management sector via the acquisition of two profitable businesses. The Directors believe that this is a fast growing sector with significant future potential and believe that, as part of the enlarged Spice group, both Circle Britannia and ServiceLine will more readily be able to grow and take advantage of their position in the sector. Through the Acquisition, Spice will add a number of high profile clients to its client base, including Norwich Union and Starbucks. The addition of such clients to Spice's client base presents an excellent opportunity to cross sell the Company's other services to these large corporates. The Directors also believe that the addition of Circle Britannia and ServiceLine to the Spice group of companies will provide opportunities to offer facilities management services to its existing client base. The Acquisition The consideration for the Acquisition, equal to £15.0 million plus associated acquisition costs and a payment of £0.3 million representing the estimated excess of working capital at completion over agreed normal working capital, has been funded today from the Company's existing bank facilities. In order to maintain the Company's current levels of debt facilities at pre-Acquisition levels, thereby preserving its acquisition funding credit facilities, the Placing has been undertaken to re-pay the draw-down on the Company's facilities. The Placing Under the terms of the Placing, 7,009,346 million new ordinary shares have been conditionally placed at a price of 214 pence each. Application has been made to London Stock Exchange plc for the admission of those shares to trading on AIM ('Admission'). Admission to AIM of the Placing Shares is expected to take place on 7 September 2005. A Placing of 586,144 existing ordinary shares of 10p each is also being undertaken under which John Taylor and Carl Chambers, both Directors of Spice are selling 10,000 and 100,000 shares respectively. Completion of the Placing is subject only to Admission and the placing and underwriting agreement entered into between, inter alios the Company and KBC Peel Hunt Ltd becoming unconditional in all other respects. The Placing Shares will rank pari passu in all respects with the existing issued ordinary shares in Spice (including the right to receive all dividends and other distributions declared thereon following Admission). The Placing Shares will not be entitled to the final dividend which was declared on 21 July 2005 and which will be paid on 20 September 2005 to shareholders on the register of members on 9 September 2005. Simon Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, said: 'We have stated our desire to find a suitable acquisition in this sector and believe that the acquisition of Circle Britannia and ServiceLine represents a one-off opportunity to buy a profitable commercial facilities management business which operates on a truly nationwide basis. Furthermore, the activities of Circle Britannia and ServiceLine have many similarities to those carried out by our Electricity Services Division, which maintains and renews both electrical and building infrastructure within the utility sector. The Board believes that Circle Britannia and ServiceLine will be a valuable addition to the Group, enabling us to extend further our capabilities in this area. 'We are particularly pleased that Lawrence Green, who founded Circle Britannia and ServiceLine, and his senior management team are joining the Group. They are highly regarded in this sector. Their addition to the Spice team will enable us to grow the Group's activities in a new market place, whilst continuing to maintain excellent standards of service amongst our existing clients.' For further information, please contact: Spice Holdings plc Tel: 0113 384 3838 Simon Rigby, Chief Executive Officer Oliver Lightowlers, Group Finance Director Carl Chambers, Corporate Development Director Rawlings Financial PR Limited Tel: 01756 770 376 John Rawlings Catriona Valentine KBC Peel Hunt Ltd Tel: 020 7418 8900 Simon Hayes Matt Goode NOTES TO EDITORS Spice Holdings plc Spice is a support services business operating predominantly in the utilities sector. The Group's operations were founded in 1996 and have their origins in the electricity industry, though the range of activities has since been expanded into the water sector, niche telecommunications services and the public sector. Spice's businesses have a common theme of delivering and coordinating infrastructure services to customers (typically in regulated industries), and the technological element within the product mix has been built up significantly over the course of the last three years. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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