REG - Nanoco Group PLC - Results of Fundraise

NanocoAnnouncement

08/06/2022 12:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20220608:nRSH1726Oa&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 1726O  Nanoco Group PLC  08 June 2022

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS RESTRICTED AND IS
NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR
INDIRECTLY, IN, INTO OR FROM THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, JAPAN, THE REPUBLIC OF
SOUTH AFRICA, AUSTRALIA, THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND, NEW ZEALAND OR ANY OTHER
JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS
OR REGULATIONS OF THAT JURISDICTION. PLEASE SEE THE IMPORTANT NOTICES AT THE
END OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT.

 

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE OR
CONTAIN ANY INVITATION, SOLICITATION, RECOMMENDATION, OFFER OR ADVICE TO ANY
PERSON TO PURCHASE AND/OR SUBSCRIBE FOR, OTHERWISE ACQUIRE OR DISPOSE OF ANY
SECURITIES IN NANOCO GROUP PLC OR ANY OTHER ENTITY IN ANY JURISDICTION.
NEITHER THIS ANNOUNCEMENT NOR THE FACT OF ITS DISTRIBUTION, SHALL FORM THE
BASIS OF, OR BE RELIED ON IN CONNECTION WITH ANY INVESTMENT DECISION IN
RESPECT OF NANOCO GROUP PLC.

 

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF ARTICLE 7 OF
THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION (596/2014/EU) AS THE SAME HAS BEEN RETAINED IN UK
LAW AS AMENDED BY THE MARKET ABUSE (AMENDMENT) (EU EXIT) REGULATIONS (SI
2019/310) ("UK MAR").

 

8 June 2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Nanoco Group plc

 

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

 

Results of Fundraise - significantly over-subscribed

 

Nanoco Group plc (LSE: NANO), a world leader in the development and
manufacture of cadmium-free quantum dots and other specific nanomaterials
emanating from its technology platform, today announces the results of the
fund raising (the "Fundraise") that took place between 6 and 7 June 2022. The
Fundraise was made up of a Placing, Subscription and a Broker Option.

 

On 6 June 2022, the Company announced that it had raised £2.25m from a
Placing and a Subscription for new shares at a price of 37 pence per share. A
Broker Option opened at that time on the same terms and this closed at 5:00pm
on 7 June 2022. The Company had indicated that the maximum number of shares to
be issued would be 5% of the issued share capital immediately prior to the
Fundraise (approximately £5.65m in total with a maximum of £3.40m from the
Broker Option).

 

The Broker Option was very significantly over-subscribed. The Company has
taken efforts to protect the participation requests from smaller retail
investors and many of these will either not be scaled back or only modestly
so. The balance of other participation requests have been scaled back after
consultation with the Company's Joint Broker, Turner Pope Investments.

 

The total amount raised in the Fundraise, after scaling back
over-subscriptions, amounts to £5.65m before costs of approximately £0.25m.
FY22 year end cash is therefore expected to be between £7.0m and £7.5m. The
additional funding from the Broker Option extends the Company's cash runway
into CY25, well beyond the point that the Company expects the organic business
to be profitable and cash generative. The significant value inflection point
in the Samsung IP litigation trial, now due in September 2022, was already
covered by the Placing and Subscription. The cash runway now extends even
further and beyond the expected outcome of Samsung's appeals against the
decisions in Nanoco's favour by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on the
validity of all 47 of Nanoco's claims in the litigation.

 

Brian Tenner, Chief Executive Officer of Nanoco Group said:

"We are delighted with the level of support from our existing shareholders and
new investors. By consistently delivering on anticipated milestones, we
continue steady progress towards our goal of creating a fully-fledged,
self-financing organic business. We continue our work in parallel to realise
fair value for the Company and its shareholders from the patent litigation
against Samsung.

"The Fundraise gives us a very solid platform to achieve both of these goals.
While we will maintain our discipline in focusing on near term value creation
opportunities and cost management, the Fundraise, combined with the new major
work package with our European Customer, provides a much more stable
environment for managing the business and retaining our team of highly skilled
personnel.

"The strength of demand in the Fundraise is also a very clear message of
support for the Company in its IP litigation. As announced on 7 June 2022,
Samsung's attempt to delay the trial for a second time has failed and we
welcome the new trial date now set for September 2022, at the earlier end of
our expectations. A robust balance sheet in the run up to the trial in Texas
significantly strengthens our position opposite Samsung and any efforts to
draw out the process through judicial appeals.

"The over-subscribed Fundraise has been a fitting close to a very successful
H1 CY22. The next six months should bring two further opportunities for
significant steps forward in the organic business and the IP litigation. The
Nanoco team are absolutely focused on delivering against both of those and
creating value for all of our stakeholders."

 

More details of the fund raise

The total number of new shares to be issued is 15,284,340 new Ordinary Shares
at 37.0 pence per Ordinary Share. Applications have been made to the FCA for
the 15,284,340 new Ordinary Shares issued pursuant to the Fundraise to be
admitted to the premium segment of the Official List and to the London Stock
Exchange for the new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on its main
market for listed securities. Admission is expected to become effective, and
dealings in the new Ordinary Shares are expected to commence, at 8.00 a.m. on
13 June 2022. Following Admission, the new Ordinary Shares will rank pari
passu in all respects with the existing Ordinary Shares.

 

On Admission, the Company's issued share capital will comprise 322,445,744
Ordinary Shares, of which 12,222 were previously held in treasury and remain
so. Each Ordinary Share carries the right to one vote and, therefore, the
total number of voting rights in the Company on Admission will be 321,433,522.
This figure may be used by Shareholders and other investors 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 Company under
the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

 

== End ==

 

All references to time in this document are to London time, unless otherwise
stated.

For further information, please contact:

Nanoco Group PLC:

Brian Tenner,
CEO
+44 (0) 161 603 7900

Liam Gray, CFO
 
+44 (0) 161 603 7900

 

Turner Pope Investments (Joint Corporate Broker):

Andrew
Thacker
+44 (0) 20 3657 0050

James Pope

 

Peel Hunt LLP (Joint Corporate Broker):

Edward
Knight
+44 (0) 20 7418 8900

James Smith

 

MHP
Communications:
+44 (0) 203 128 8570

Reg Hoare

Pete Lambie

Charlie Protheroe

nanoco@mhpc.com

 

The person responsible for arranging for the release of this announcement on
behalf of Nanoco is Liam Gray, Chief Financial Officer.

MAR

The information contained within this announcement is considered by the
Company to contain inside information for the purposes of UK MAR.  Upon the
publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this
inside information will be considered to be in the public domain.

 

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This announcement (including information incorporated by reference in this
announcement) and other information published by Nanoco may contain statements
about Nanoco that are or may be deemed to be forward looking statements.
Such statements are prospective in nature.  All statements other than
historical statements of facts may be forward looking statements.  Without
limitation, statements containing the words "targets", "plans", "believes",
"expects", "aims", "intends", "will", "may", "anticipates", "estimates",
"projects" or "considers" or other similar words may be forward looking
statements.

 

Forward looking statements inherently contain risks and uncertainties as they
relate to events or circumstances in the future.  Important factors such as
business or economic cycles, the terms and conditions of Nanoco's financing
arrangements, tax rates, or increased competition may cause Nanoco's actual
financial results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any
forward looking statements.  Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are
cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward looking statements,
which speak only as of the date hereof.  Nanoco disclaims any obligation to
update any forward looking or other statements contained herein, except as
required by applicable law.

 

Notes for editors:

About Nanoco Group plc

Nanoco (LSE: NANO) harnesses the power of nano-materials. Nano-materials are
materials with dimensions typically in the range 1 - 100 nm. Nano-materials
have a range of useful properties, including optical and electronic. Quantum
dots are a subclass of nano-material that have size-dependent optical and
electronic properties. The Group produces quantum dots and other
nano-materials. Within the sphere of quantum dots, the Group exploits
different characteristics of the quantum dots to target different performance
criteria that are attractive to specific markets or end-user applications such
as the Display, Sensor and Electronics markets. An interesting property of
quantum dots is their absorption spectrum. Nanoco's HEATWAVE™ quantum dots
can be tuned to absorb light at different wavelengths across the near-infrared
spectrum, rendering them useful for applications including image sensors.
Another interesting property of quantum dots is photoluminescence: the
emission of longer wavelength light upon excitation by light of a shorter
wavelength. The colour of light emitted depends on the particle size. Nanoco's
CFQD® quantum dots are free of cadmium and other toxic heavy metals, and can
be tuned to emit light at different wavelengths across the visible and
infrared spectrum, rendering them useful for a wide range of applications
including displays, lighting and biological imaging.

Nanoco was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Manchester, UK, with a US
subsidiary, Nanoco Inc., in Concord, MA. Nanoco continues to build out a
world-class, patent-protected IP portfolio generated both by its own
innovation engine, as well as through acquisition.

Nanoco is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange and trades
under the ticker symbol NANO. For further information please visit:
www.nanocotechnologies.com.

 

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  ROIBGGDLUUGDGDI