REG - Pollen Street Group - Share Buyback Programme

Pollen StreetAnnouncement

21/03/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 6906H  Pollen Street Group Ltd  21 March 2024

21 March 2024

 

Pollen Street Group Limited

(the "Company" or together with its subsidiaries the "Group" or "Pollen
Street")

Commencement of Share Buyback Programme under Pollen Street's Capital
Allocation Framework

 

Pollen Street is pleased to announce the commencement of a Share Buyback
Programme (the "Buyback Programme") to purchase ordinary shares ("Ordinary
Shares") in the capital of the Company with a nominal value of 1 pence each up
to a maximum aggregate consideration payable of £30 million. The Buyback
Programme will be carried out in tranches, with the first tranche commencing
on 21 March 2024 and ending on the date of the 2024 Annual General Meeting
(and in any event no later than 31 July 2024) with the subsequent tranche
commencing after the previous tranche has ended.

Pollen Street's Capital Allocation Framework

As highlighted in Pollen Street's Annual Report and Accounts for 2023
announced today, the Group's balance sheet is in a strong position, with
tangible net assets of £355 million. This enables the Group to provide stable
income whilst accelerating the growth of the Asset Manager through
transitioning the Investment Company assets from predominantly holding direct
Private Credit investments today to investing in Pollen Street's Private
Credit and Private Equity funds.

Under this framework, Pollen Street Group Limited will maintain sufficient
balance sheet capital to:

1.   Invest in funds managed by the Group to accelerate the growth of the
Asset Manager taking advantage of attractive investment opportunities and
aligning interest with our investors to grow AuM;

2.   Support the dividend policy, which is to declare dividends of no lower
than £33 million in respect of 2024 and dividends growing progressively
thereafter;

3.   Provide strategic flexibility for inorganic growth, should
opportunities arise; and

4.   Return surplus capital to shareholders through share buybacks of
approximately 2 to 5 per cent per annum of the outstanding share capital of
the Group

The Group's net debt-to-tangible-equity ratio was 54 per cent as at 31
December 2023.  This is lower than it has been historically (31 December
2022: 69 per cent) to create capacity to make commitments to Pollen Street
managed funds.  Pollen Street will continue to operate with the
debt-to-tangible-equity ratio not exceeding 100 per cent.

Rationale for Share Buyback Programme

The Board believes the current share price presents an attractive investment
opportunity for Pollen Street to enhance balance sheet returns to
shareholders. The Buyback Programme is consistent with Pollen Street's
disciplined approach to capital allocation and reflects the Board's continued
confidence in the prospects of the Group. The purpose of the programme is to
reduce the capital of the Company, with repurchased shares to be held in
treasury to provide flexibility in the future. Shares held in treasury do not
rank for dividends.

Details of the Share Buyback Programme

Pursuant to the Buyback Programme, Pollen Street will enter into
non-discretionary instructions with Investec Bank plc ("Investec") to purchase
up to £30 million (excluding expenses) of the Company's Ordinary Shares with
a nominal value of 1 pence each and to make trading decisions under the
Buyback Programme independently of the Company in accordance with certain
pre-set parameters and to the Company's right to terminate the agreement in
limited circumstances.  Ordinary Shares acquired by Investec under the
agreement will be sold to the Company.

The maximum aggregate value of Ordinary Shares that can be repurchased under
the first tranche of the Buyback Programme is £10,000,000. The Buyback
Programme will take place in accordance with the Company's current buyback
authority granted by shareholders at Pollen Street plc's 2023 Annual General
Meeting. The Company intends to renew this authority at the 2024 Annual
General Meeting.

Any acquisitions of shares will be carried out within certain pre-set
parameters and in accordance with the Company's existing general authority to
repurchase Ordinary Shares and Chapter 12 of the FCA's Listing Rules. The
Group will seek to make market purchases of Ordinary Shares at a price or
prices that the Group believes will be good value for shareholders. In view of
the level of trading liquidity in the Company's Ordinary Shares, the Group may
make purchases in excess of the price and volume restrictions set out in
Article 5(1) of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (as it forms part
of Retained EU Law as defined in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018) and
the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 2016/1052 (as it forms part of
Retained EU Law as defined in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018),
subject to prevailing market conditions and liquidity. Any repurchase of
Ordinary Shares will be announced no later than 7:30 am on the business day
following the calendar day on which the repurchase occurred.

The Company will make further announcements in due course following the
completion of any repurchases. There is no guarantee that the Buyback
Programme will be implemented in full or that any Ordinary Shares will be
repurchased by the Company. The Buyback Programme will not impact the
Company's existing Ordinary Share dividend policy, which will continue
unaffected through the regular awards of interim and final dividends.

At the time of this announcement, the Company's share capital comprises
64,209,597 Ordinary Shares with voting rights.

 

About Pollen Street

Pollen Street is an alternative asset manager dedicated to investing within
the financial and business services sectors across both Private Equity and
Private Credit strategies. The business was founded in 2013 and has
consistently delivered top tier returns alongside growing AuM.

Pollen Street benefits from a complementary set of asset management activities
focused on managing third-party AuM (the "Asset Manager") together with
on-balance sheet investments (the "Investment Company").

The Asset Manager raises capital from high quality investors and deploys it
into its Private Equity and Private Credit strategies. The strong recurring
revenues from this business enable delivery of scalable growth.

The Investment Company invests in the strategies of the Group delivering
attractive risk adjusted returns and accelerating growth in third-party AuM of
the Asset Manager through investing in Pollen Street funds, taking advantage
of attractive investment opportunities and aligning interest with our
investors to grow AuM. Today the portfolio is largely invested in credit
assets with the allocation to Private Equity expect to increase to 30 per cent
in the long term. The portfolio consists of both direct investments and
investments in funds managed by Pollen Street.

POLN is listed on the London Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: POLN). Further
details are available at www.pollenstreetgroup.com
(http://www.pollenstreetgroup.com) .

For further information about this announcement please contact:

 

Pollen Street - Corporate Development Director

Shweta Chugh

shweta.chugh@pollencap.com (mailto:shweta.chugh@pollencap.com)

+44 (0)7813581377

 

FGS Global - Communications Advisor

Chris Sibbald

Chris.Sibbald@fgsglobal.com

+44 (0)7855955531

 

Barclays Bank plc - Joint Broker

Neal West / Stuart Muress

+44 (0)20 7623 2323

 

Investec Bank plc - Joint Broker

Ben Griffiths / Bruce Garrow

+44 (0)20 7597 4000

 

Link Company Matters Limited - Company Secretary

polncosec@linkgroup.co.uk

 

 

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