REG - Unigel Group PLC - Admission to Trading and First Day of Dealings

Svenska Handelsbanken ABAnnouncement

26/08/2022 08:45

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RNS Number : 2959X  Unigel Group PLC  26 August 2022

26 August 2022

 

Unigel Group plc

 

(the "Company" or the "Group")

 

Admission to Trading and First Day of Dealings

 

Unigel Group plc (AQSE:UNX), the holding company for its wholly-owned
operating subsidiary, Unitape Limited ("Unitape"), and its 60 per cent. owned
operating subsidiary, Unigel (UK) Limited ("Unigel"), which develop and
manufacture components used in the production of fibre optic cables, announces
that trading in its ordinary shares will commence on the Aquis Stock Exchange
Growth Market ("AQSE") at 8:00 a.m., today ( 26 August 2022), under the ticker
"UNX" and ISIN: GB00BPP4RY41 .

 

The Company has been admitted to the Access Segment of AQSE ("Admission")
following successful completion of a subscription, raising gross proceeds of
c.£0.8m.

 

The Board of the Company comprises Kwang Hua ("Eric") Chhoa, Chief Executive
Officer, Gary Revel-Chion, Director, Sven ("Janne") Sjoden, Non-executive
Chairman, and Azlinda Ariffin, Non-executive Director. Further information on
the directors' biographies can be found below.

 

The issued share capital of the Company on Admission comprises 11,285,000
ordinary shares.

Overview of the subsidiaries

Unigel

Unigel formulates, manufactures, and markets thixotropic gels primarily to the
fibre optic cable industry. In addition, it also makes specialty gel products
for the construction, green energy, and high voltage transmission apparatus
markets. For the year ended 31 December 2021, Unigel had revenue of £12.4m
and profit after tax of c.£0.2m.

 

Unitape

Unitape commenced its business activities as a trader of co-polymer steel
tapes, and after 10 years of trading, the company progressed to backward
integrate into the slitting of co-polymer jumbo rolls into steel tapes. To
facilitate this, the company established a US subsidiary-Unitape (USA), LLC
and leased a 30,000 sq ft production space in Conover, North Carolina for its
slitting business. In 2017, Unitape (USA), LLC became a wholly owned
subsidiary of Unitape. For the year ended 31 December 2021, Unitape had
revenue of £9.3m and profit after tax of c.£0.4m.

 

 

Eric Chhoa, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

 

"Our admission onto the AQSE Growth market represents an important milestone
for the Group. Access to capital markets will support future business
expansion and talent acquisition. We have assembled a strong board to guide
the Group and we are excited to progress with the support of our
shareholders."

 

The Company's Admission Document is available to view here: www.unigel.com

 

The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this
announcement.

 

 

Enquiries:

 

 Unigel Group plc
 Eric Chhoa                                             +81 7022613812

 Lim Bee Khin                                           +60 123018900

 Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (AQSE Corporate Adviser)
 James Lewis                                            +44 (0) 20 72130 880

 Jo Turner

 Ludovico Lazzaretti

Further information

Thixotropic gels

Thixotropic gels are made from a proprietary formulation of specialty
polymers, high grade base-oils and other specialty active chemical compounds.
Typically, fibre optic cables are manufactured in special manufacturing
environments at a high production speed. As a protective buffering agent for
the fibre optic cable, the thixotropic gel must meet and maintain an operating
viscosity range to do its work effectively. However, the operating viscosity
inside the cable is too high for thixotropic gels to be applied into the
buffer tubes without lowering the viscosity of the thixotropic gel. The
viscosity of the thixotropic gel must be reduced to enable precision filling
of the buffer tubes with thixotropic gels at high speed. To enable this to
happen, buffering gels used for fibre optic cables are engineered to be
thixotropic. Thixotropy is essentially a time-dependent sheer thinning
property. When sheer stress (or agitation) is applied to the thixotropic gel
during the production process, the viscosity of the thixotropic gel is
reduced, enabling the less viscous gel to be applied easily and efficiently at
high production speed. After the sheered thixotropic gel is flooded into the
buffer tube, the thixotropic gel will return to its original viscosity after a
finite period, allowing it to perform its intended purpose as a buffering
agent. It is estimated that an average kilometre of optical fibre cable uses
approximately 10-25 kg of thixotropic gel as a buffering agent. The quantity
of thixotropic gel used is dependent on cable design and construction, as well
as the fibre count inside a fibre optic cable.

 

Steel tapes

Armoured fibre optic cables have a layer of co-polymer steel tape wrapped
around a pre-jacketed cable. In a typical cable production process,
semi-finished pre-jacketed cables are wrapped by co-polymer or laminated steel
tapes as the cable goes through a "wrapper die" which forms a concentric steel
wrap before the cable is extruded or jacketed with high density polypropylene
(HDPE). The combination of the laminated steel tape and HDPE jacket as a
protective shell prevents moisture ingression and physical impact. With
enhanced physical properties, steel tape armoured fibre optic cables can be
deployed without the use of ducts in demanding physical environment from high
traffic urban roads to water-logged terrains in suburban or rural conditions.

 Directors

 

Sven Janne Sjödén (Age 77), Non-executive Chairman

 

Janne was appointed as Chairman of Unigel Group plc with effect from
Admission. Janne has been the Chairman of Unigel since 2014. Janne had an
extensive career at Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, Sweden where he held
numerous leadership and senior management roles including as the President and
board member of Ericsson Network Technologies AB. He has previously served as
an adviser to Handelsbanken AB, and was the Chairman and board member of The
Hoverline Group AB in Sweden from 2008 to 2013. Janne graduated with a
Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Uppsala, Sweden.

 

Kwang Hua ("Eric") Chhoa (Age 57), Chief Executive Officer

 

Eric was appointed to the Board of Unigel Group plc on 23 February, 2022. Eric
has founded, built and acquired numerous companies in the telecommunications
cable, cable components and services areas over the past 25 years. In 2014 and
2017, Hikari Capital Limited, a company which Eric controls, acquired 60 per
cent. of Unigel and 100 per cent. of Unitape to build a cables component
supply ecosystem for the global fibre optic cables industry. Eric graduated
summa cum laude from Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan, and earned his MBA from
Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts.

 

Gary Revel-Chion (Age 63), Director

 

Gary was appointed as a Director of Unigel Group plc on 11 July, 2022. Gary is
the current Financial Controller of Unigel and Unitape. Gary is a Chartered
Accountant with over 35 years of experience across a wide range of industries.
Prior to running his own accounting practice, Gary was employed at Robson
Rhodes as a Senior Audit Manager. In 2018, Gary joined Unigel as Head of
Finance where he was responsible for the financial operations of the business.
Gary graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Accountancy and Economics from the
University of Hull, England, and is a member of the Institute of Chartered
Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

 

Azlinda Ezrina Binti Ariffin (Age 53), Non-executive Director

 

Azlinda was appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director of Unigel Group
plc with effect from Admission. Azlinda has over 28 years of experience as a
corporate lawyer and is a consulting partner at Withersworldwide LLP. She is
also the founder and CEO of Dricopax Capital Limited, a multi-family office
boutique firm in London. In April 2021, Azlinda was appointed to the board of
MobilityOne Limited, an AIM listed company as an Independent Non-Executive
Director. Azlinda graduated with an LLB (Hons) from University College of
Wales, Cardiff. She is a barrister at Gray's Inn, and a member of the Law
Society of England and Wales.

 

For more information please visit: www.unigel.com (http://www.unigel.com)

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