16 August 2024
Everest Global plc
(“Company”)
Issue of £3.5 million of New Convertible Loan Notes
The directors of the Company are pleased to announce that on 15 August 2024
the Company constituted a loan note instrument pursuant to which the Company
may issue up to £50 million loan notes in tranches of integral multiples of
£250,000 at any time. Each tranche of loan notes will have an initial term of
3 years from the date of the certificate being issued to the relevant
noteholder (the “Loan Note Instrument”). Pursuant to the terms of the Loan
Note Instrument the Company has issued 14 unsecured convertible loan notes
(“CLNs”) to Surich Real Estate Opportunity Fund SPC (“SPC” or the
“Noteholder” respectively) in an aggregate value of £3.5m. The Company
will update the market on receipt of the funds which are expected the week
ending 23 August 2024. SPC is wholly owned and controlled by Mr Ziwei Peng,
Mr Peng is the owner and controller of Golden Nice International Group
Limited, which holds a 24.55% interest in the issued share capital of the
Company. Given Mr Peng’s holding in the Company, the issue of the CLNs to
SPC is a related party transaction for the purposes of Rule 7.3 of the
Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.
The Company is issuing the CLNs to fund the Company's working capital and
capital expenditure requirements for the time being and in order to work
towards executing its strategy to undertake one or more further acquisitions
of businesses (either shares or assets) in the beverage distribution and
production sector in the UK and the rest of Europe as set out in its
prospectus dated 31 October 2023.
The material terms of the Loan Note Instruments are:
- the aggregate principal amount of the loan notes is
limited to £50m and they will be issued in integral multiples of £250,000;
- the loan notes issued pursuant to the Loan Notes
Instrument are unsecured;
- the term of each tranche of loan notes is 3 years from the
date of the certificate of the applicable loan notes;
- they are convertible into ordinary shares of £0.02 each
in the issued share capital of the Company (“Ordinary Shares”);
- the noteholder will not be able to convert loan notes in
the first 12 months from the date of issue of such loan notes;
- the noteholder will not be able to convert loan notes if
in any rolling 12 month period Everest has already issued 20% of its entire
issued share capital, unless:
* a prospectus is published by the Company which includes a disclosure
referring to the conversion of such loan notes and admission of the new
Ordinary Shares to the Official List of the Financial Conduct Authority and to
trading on the London Stock Exchange’s main market for listed securities;
and
* the issue of such new Ordinary Shares will not result in such noteholder,
together with any persons acting in concert with it, holding 30 per cent. or
more of the voting rights of the Company at any time;
- a noteholder will not be able to convert loan notes to the
extent that such noteholder, together with anyone acting in concert with them,
will hold 30% or more of the voting rights in Everest, unless independent
shareholders have given their approval and the Takeover Panel has waived the
obligation to make an offer for the entire issued share capital of Everest;
- the noteholder may request the payment of interest on the
anniversary date of the issue of the loan notes to them or request that the
interest is rolled up and capitalised;
- the interest rate that will be applied to outstanding loan
notes s is 6% per annum;
- the conversion price of the loan notes is a price per
Ordinary Share of £0.04;
- at the end of the term of each tranche of loan notes (or
such other date that the Company notifies the relevant noteholders in writing
in respect of such tranche of loan notes), Everest will repay the principal
amount of such tranche of loan notes not converted, plus accrued interest, by
issuing new ordinary shares or cash (at the Company’s election) ; and
- the CLNs can only be transferred to a party approved by
the Directors.
As at today’s date, excluding any accrued interest, £254,450 of previously
issued convertible loan notes remain outstanding pursuant to convertible loan
note deeds (all of which are held by Golden Nice International Group Limited,
a company wholly owned by Mr Ziwei Peng), further details of which are set out
in the table below:
Convertible Loan Note Issue Date of Instrument Number of Convertible Loan Notes outstanding Old Redemption Date/ New Redemption Date Conversion Price
£250,000 unsecured convertible loan notes of £0.05 each 1 October 2018 (as amended on 5 October 2020 and on 29 July 2022 and 29 September 2023) £162,500 3,250,000 30 September 2023/ 31 March 2025 £0.05 per Ordinary Share
£750,000 unsecured convertible loan notes of £0.05 each 31 March 2021 (as amended on 29 July 2022 and 24 January 2023 and 29 September 2023) £91,950 1,839,000 30 September 2023/ 31 March 2025 £0.05 per Ordinary Share
Total: £254,450 5,089,000
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of
EU Regulation 596/2014 (which forms part of domestic UK law pursuant to the
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018).
The directors of the Company accept responsibility for the content of this
announcement.
For further information please contact:
Everest Global plc
Andy Sui, Chief Executive Officer Rob Scott, Non-Executive Director +44 (0) 776 775 1787 +27 (0)84 6006 001
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP
Jo Turner / Emily Staples +44 (0) 20 7213 0885 / +44 (0)20 7213 0897
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