REG - Staffline Group PLC - Launch of Share Buyback

StafflineAnnouncement

01/08/2023 07:15

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20230801:nRSA8186Ha&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 8186H  Staffline Group PLC  01 August 2023

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION AS STIPULATED UNDER THE MARKET
ABUSE REGULATION (EU NO. 596/2014) AS IT FORMS PART OF UK DOMESTIC LAW BY
VIRTUE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (WITHDRAWAL) ACT 2018 ("MAR").

 

 

1 August 2023

 

Staffline Group plc

 

("Staffline" or the "Company")

 

Launch of Share Buyback

 

Staffline Group plc, the recruitment and training group, today announces its
intention to make a series of share repurchases with a view to returning up to
£4.0 million to shareholders (the "Share Buyback").

 

The Group remains disciplined in its allocation of capital with the main
objective being to enhance shareholder value.  We continuously assess our
medium-term plans which take account of growth prospects, investment in the
Republic of Ireland branch network, cash generation, net borrowings, and
leverage.  Therefore, the amount allocated to buybacks is based on our
predicted trading cash flows and financing headroom.

 

Following the announcement of the 2023 interim results, the Board believes the
current time presents a good opportunity to make share purchases. The Company
has delivered two years of underlying operating profits of at least £10m and
net debt (pre IFRS16) has reduced to £3.5 million at 30 June 2023 (30 June
2022: £9.7 million) through retained earnings and improvements in working
capital.  In addition, average borrowings are on a downward trend.
Consequently, the Company has substantial headroom under its available debt
facilities.

 

Accordingly, the Company today announces the launch of the Share Buyback, to
repurchase ordinary shares in the capital of the Company (the "Ordinary
Shares") up to an aggregate value of £4.0 million. The Ordinary Shares
purchased pursuant to the Share Buyback will be cancelled.

 

The Share Buyback will be operated in accordance with the terms of the
Company's general authority to repurchase Ordinary Shares granted by
shareholders at its annual general meeting (the "AGM"), held on 12 June 2023.

 

In accordance with the authority granted at the AGM, a) the aggregate number
of Ordinary Shares to be repurchased will not exceed 16,576,772; b) the
minimum price which may be paid for each Ordinary Share will be £0.10; and c)
the maximum price (excluding expenses) which may be paid for each Ordinary
Share will be the higher of: (i) an amount equal to 105 per cent of the
average of the middle market quotations for the Ordinary Shares as derived
from the AIM Appendix of the Daily Official List of London Stock Exchange plc
for the five business days immediately preceding the day on which the purchase
is made; and (ii) an amount equal to the higher of the price of the last
independent trade of an Ordinary Share and the highest current independent bid
for an Ordinary Share on the trading venue where the purchase is carried out.

 

Shareholders should be aware that a purchase of Ordinary Shares by the Company
on any trading day may represent a significant proportion of the daily trading
volume in the Ordinary Shares and could exceed 25 per cent. of the average
daily trading volume of the preceding 20 business days. Should that be the
case, the Company could exceed the pricing and/or volume restrictions as
established by the Commission Delegated Regulation 2016/1052/EU (as in force
in the UK and as amended by the FCA's Technical Standards (Market Abuse
Regulation) (EU Exit) Instrument 2019) (the "Regulation") and therefore the
Share Buy-back may not fall within the safe harbour provisions of the
Regulation.

 

As part of the Share Buyback, Liberum has been appointed to purchase the
Ordinary Shares as principal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For further information please contact:

 Staffline Group plc                                                            via Vigo Consulting
 www.stafflinegroupplc.co.uk (http://www.stafflinegroupplc.co.uk)

 Albert Ellis, Chief Executive Officer

 Daniel Quint, Chief Financial Officer

 Liberum Capital Limited (Nomad and Broker)                                     +44 (0) 20 3100 2000
 Richard Lindley

 Satbir Kler

 

 Zeus (Joint Broker)                                      020 3829 5000

 www.zeuscapital.co.uk (http://www.zeuscapital.co.uk)

 David Foreman (Investment Banking)

 Nick Searle (Sales)

 Vigo Consulting (Financial PR)                           020 7390 0230

 www.vigoconsulting.com (http://www.vigoconsulting.com)   Staffline@vigoconsulting.com

 Jeremy Garcia / Kate Kilgallen

 

Market Abuse Regulation:

 

For the purposes of MAR, Article 2 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU)
2016/1055 and the UK version of such implementing regulation, the person
responsible for arranging for the release of this Announcement on behalf of
the Company is Daniel Quint, Chief Financial Officer.

 

About Staffline

Providing workforce solutions

Staffline is the UK's market leading Recruitment and Training group. It has
three divisions:

 

Recruitment GB

Staffline is a leading provider of flexible blue collar workers, supplying
c.31,000 staff per day on average to around 400 client sites, across a wide
range of industries including agriculture, supermarkets, drinks, driving, food
processing, logistics and manufacturing.

 

Recruitment Ireland

The Recruitment Ireland business is a leading end to end solutions provider
operating across twenty industries, ten branch locations and ten onsite
customer locations, supplying c.4,500 staff per day on average, and offering
RPO, MSP, temporary and permanent solutions across the island of Ireland.

 

PeoplePlus

Staffline is the leading adult skills and training provider in the UK,
delivering adult education, prison education and skills-based employability
programmes across the country.

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  MSCNKDBPKBKBKON