Prop'd Placing/Offer for Sub
Manchester & London Inv Tst PLC
20 June 2006
RNS Announcement
Manchester & London Investment Trust plc ('MLIT' or 'the Company')
20th June 2006
MLIT announces that it is undertaking a Placing and Offer for Subscription for
Shares up to the value of approximately £15 million. The price at which the
Shares will be issued will be at a 10 per cent discount to the fully diluted net
asset value calculated at the close of business two business days before the
Extraordinary General Meeting to approve the transaction.
Following a preliminary cornerstone marketing roadshow to institutional
investors undertaken by the Company and Fairfax I.S. Ltd ('Fairfax'), who are
acting as Placing Agent and Broker to the Company, Fairfax have received signed
letters of intention to subscribe for Shares to the value of £9m.
MLIT and Fairfax will continue the marketing process by approaching further
institutional investors with a view to procuring further subscribers for new
Ordinary Shares.
Existing shareholders in the Company will have the opportunity to apply for new
Ordinary Shares under the proposed Offer for Subscription. However, it should
be noted that, for reasons set out below, Manchester & Metropolitan Investment
Limited and Mr. B. S. Sheppard, who together represent a total of 62.1 per cent
of the existing shares in issue, will not be applying for Ordinary Shares in the
Offer for Subscription.
Reason for the Issue
The Company currently has 744,420 convertible preference shares which are due to
be converted on 19th September 2007 or before this date if there is an issue of
at least 750,000 Ordinary Shares in the Company.
Upon conversion of the preference shares, and without a further issue of
Ordinary Shares, the interests of the Sheppard family and the Directors in the
Company would increase from 62.4 per cent to 73.1 per cent of the issued share
capital. This increase would result in MLIT becoming a close company for tax
purposes and therefore the Company would be unable to re-apply to HM Revenue &
Customs to retain its investment trust status.
In order to retain the tax benefits of an investment trust, it is intended to
dilute the Sheppard family holding by way of the above mentioned Issue.
Enquiries:
Investment Manager:
Mark Sheppard
Midas Investment Management Ltd.
Tel: 0161 242 2895
Corporate Broker:
Paul Richards
Fairfax I.S. Ltd.
Tel: 020 7460 4371
Sponsor:
David Floyd
Dawnay, Day Corporate Finance Ltd.
Tel: 020 7834 8060
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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