Trading Update

RNS Number : 7396T

Worthington Group PLC

08 October 2014

 



Worthington Group plc ("the Company" or "Worthington")

8^th October 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Trading Statement

The Company is pleased to confirm that it is making excellent progress in its key investment areas:

Media - In relation to its existing portfolio of media investments, the Company is able to announce that bookings for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, due to be held in November 2014, are more than 50% up on the same period last year. The judges this year include Sir Malcom Williamson, Chairman of Friends Life Group Plc, and Peter Ibbetson, Chairman of Business Banking for Nat West and RBS. The "Great British Entrepreneur Awards", "The Digital Marketing Show" and the "Britain means Business Expo" - all now owned by Worthington - are collectively the largest events taking place in the UK as part of the "Global Entrepreneurship Week" activities in November 2014. Over 10,000 visitors are expected at these events which take place at Excel and Old Billingsgate.

Supporting these events, the second edition of the "Britain means Business" magazine, also now owned by Worthington, will be published in November 2014 and will preview the inaugural "Entrepreneur Power 100 list" of the most influential supporters of UK entrepreneurs.

Further media investments are due to be completed within the next ten days which are expected to add significantly to Worthington's income stream.

Legal Claims - the Company expects to be able to announce details of the acquisition of two further substantial claims within the next seven days.

New Investments - the Company is also in discussions to acquire a significant number of new investments. They include: a majority interest in a substantial international, profitable and cash generative clean energy company; a significant minority interest in a private mining company with large proven reserves which is expected to be quickly cash generative; plus a substantial interest in a listed mining business; and also the acquisition of  majority stakes in oil and gas producing assets.

The Company expects to be able to report further in relation to these investments shortly.

Rare Earth Elements - Worthington is pleased to confirm that its partners, NunaMinerals A/S (COPENHAGEN: NUNA.CO / NUNA.DC) and exploration partner Greenland Rare Earth Projects Ltd (GREP) have announced that, on Saturday 4^th October 2014,  they successfully completed a helicopter-borne radiometric survey at the Paatusoq Critical Metals Project in South East Greenland. A total of 1529 line-kilometres of data acquisition were conducted by EON Geosciences Inc. of St-Laurent, Québec, Canada. The geophysical program was funded by Worthington and its partner GREP under an Option Agreement with NUNA announced by the Company on 1^st September this year.

Ole Christiansen, CEO of NunaMinerals stated,"The successful acquisition of airborne radiometric data is a significant development for the Paatusoq Project. The Gardar Alkaline Igneous Province of South Greenland is one of the best exploration addresses for critical metals globally, with several world-class deposits under development. As well as being one of the largest intrusive centres in the province, Paatusoq is also an entirely virgin exploration target. The newly acquired geophysical data will allow us to generate and prioritise exploration targets for our 2015 field program with Greenland Rare Earth Projects Ltd"

Doug Ware, CEO of Worthington commented: "We are very pleased to be on schedule. We expect that final data will be with NunaMinerals by November this year and will be used to delineate exploration targets for the 2015 field program.  This will target the rare earth elements, niobium, tantalum and zirconium (+/- uranium, thorium) minerals. The Company will be reporting back to investors as soon as that data is available". Full details about NunaMinerals, including their announcements, can be found on their website: www.nunaminerals.com.

Senior Appointments - The recent appointments of David Winduss, formerly of Hanson Industries and Bidcorp, as head of the Company's acquisition team and Oleg-Serguei Schkoda, to head the Company's oil and gas team the Company and Simon Burton to head the media team are encouraging. Before the end of October 2014, Worthington expects to be able to announce further senior appointments as the Company continues to lay the foundations for a large, and successful, international diversified investment company.

Commenting on the developments Doug Ware, CEO, said "We are very enthused by the prospects for the Company and believe that our shareholders can take pride in what the Company is achieving. We have only been back on the market for a little over five weeks and, although the share price has been on something of a roller coaster ride, the Worthington team continue to work extremely hard to ensure that exceptional returns are delivered for our shareholders in the short, medium and long term".

About Worthington Group Plc ("Worthington")

Worthington (Stock Exchange LSE: WRN) is a British investment company that  celebrates its 60th anniversary as a London Stock Exchange main market listed company this year. The company has four areas of investment focus: property, litigation claims, new economy and emerging markets. The Company believes that exceptional shareholder returns can be achieved by utilising its main market Sterling paper to acquire investments in these sectors worldwide.

Note: Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement, including Worthington's strategy and plans, as well as expectations for future revenue and earnings, reflect Worthington's   current views and assumptions with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. There are many factors that may cause actual results achieved to differ materially from expectations for future results and expectations that may be expressed in or form an assumption of such forward-looking statements. Such factors include risks related to the day to day business of Worthington, client volatility, sales fluctuations, the general economic climate, political and environment and  other risks,  cancellations,  software failures and interruption to service to customers due to technical problems, acquisition delays  and failure as well as other uncertainties related to the results of Worthington including risks of delays or closure of projects, price falls, currency fluctuations and changes in contract terms, legislation and administrative practices, as well as competition risk and other unforeseen factors. If one or more of such risks or factors of uncertainty were to materialise, or should one or more of the statements provided prove to be incorrect, actual developments may differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement.

Enquiries:

Charlotte Parham, Media information                           Tel: [phone]

or email: [e-mail]

PD Cosec - Company Secretary                                        Tel: [phone]

Website: www.worthingtongroupplc.com

Statement ends.

 

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