REG - Woodbois Limited - Placing of £3 million

WoodboisAnnouncement

13/03/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 6631S  Woodbois Limited  13 March 2023

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of
Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 which forms part of UK law by virtue of the
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR").

 

13 March 2023

 

Woodbois Limited

 

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

 

£3 million placing

Appointment of Joint Broker

Woodbois Limited (AIM: WBI), the African focused forestry, timber trading,
reforestation and voluntary carbon credit company, today announces the results
of the potential fundraise which was disclosed to the market on Friday 10
March 2023.

Gross proceeds of £3 million (approximately $3.6 million) have been raised by
way of a conditional placing (the "Placing") of 250,000,000 new ordinary
shares of 1p each in the Company ("New Ordinary Shares") at a price of 1.2
pence per New Ordinary Share (the "Placing Price").

Novum Securities Limited ("Novum") acted as broker and placing agent in
respect of the Placing which was to new institutional and other investors.

The Placing Shares represent 10 per cent of the existing issued Ordinary Share
capital of the Company prior to the fundraise. Proceeds of the Placing will be
used for general working capital purposes.

Application will be made to London Stock Exchange plc for the admission of the
New Ordinary Shares to trading on AIM. It is expected that Admission will
become effective on or before 8.00 a.m. on 17 March 2023.

The New Ordinary Shares will, when issued, be credited as fully paid and will
rank pari passu in all respects with each other and with the existing ordinary
shares in the capital of the Company, including, without limitation, the right
to receive all dividends and other distributions declared, made or paid after
the date of issue.

Placing Agreement

The Company has entered into a placing agreement (the "Placing Agreement")
with Novum, subject to which Novum have conditionally procured subscribers
for the Placing Shares at the Placing Price. The Placing is not being
underwritten by Novum as to settlement risk or otherwise.  The Placing
Agreement contains customary terms and conditions and Novum is entitled to
terminate the Placing Agreement at any time prior to Admission in certain
limited circumstances.

Share capital

Following admission, the Company's total number of Ordinary Shares in issue
will become 2,739,988,873 and this will consist of 2,485,850,726 Voting
Ordinary Shares, 19,138,147 Treasury Shares and 235,000,000 Non-Voting
Ordinary Shares. The aforementioned figure of 2,485,850,726 Voting Ordinary
Shares may be used by shareholders in the Company 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 Financial
Conduct Authority's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

Chief Executive Officer Paul Dolan said:

"We are pleased to have successfully closed this limited and oversubscribed
fundraise which will provide working capital for the Company, including to
assist in its further expansion and towards achieving full FSC certification.
We have appointed Novum Securities Limited as joint broker to the Company, to
act alongside our existing broker Canaccord Genuity, in order to help our
positive story become recognised by a wider audience.

As we reported to the market on 12 January 2023, our total revenues for 2022
were $23.1m versus $17.5m in 2021, a 32% increase. Our FY 2022 gross profit
was up 69% to $5.9m vs FY 2021 of $3.5m and our FY 2022 gross profit margin
increased to 25% vs 20% in FY 2021 (unaudited figures).

This Placing significantly strengthens our balance sheet as we take the
Company towards cashflow positivity in 2023 where our overriding priority is
to generate consistent, positive cash flow from our substantial forestry
assets."

 

Enquiries:

Woodbois Limited  +44 (0)20 7099 1940

Paul Dolan - Chief Executive Officer

Carnel Geddes - Chief Financial Officer

Canaccord Genuity, Nominated Advisor and Joint Broker +44 (0)20 7523 8000

Henry Fitzgerald-O'Connor

Harry Pardoe

Gordon Hamilton

Novum Securities Limited, Joint Broker +44 (0) 20 7399 9427

Colin Rowbury

Jon Belliss

 

Background on Woodbois

Woodbois Limited (AIM:WBI) is an African-focused forestry company, divided
into three distinct, but highly complementary divisions comprising the
production and supply of sustainable African hardwood products, the trading of
hardwood and hardwood products, and a reforestation and carbon credit
division.

Woodbois' forestry division has production facilities in Gabon and Mozambique,
managing a total of c470,000 hectares of natural forest concessions. The
trading division comprises a highly experienced team of timber specialists,
who source and supply sustainable timber to a global customer base. Its
proprietary technology developed in house, captures, stores and presents data,
providing a matching engine to build scale and optimise trading opportunities
with its global customer base.

The Company's carbon sequestration and trading division aims to generate
voluntary carbon credits for corporate partners through the delivery of
large-scale reforestation projects.

The Company's focus on the transparency and sustainability of its timber
operations has been recognised by The Zoological Society of London, which
ranked Woodbois joint sixth in its Sustainability Policy Transparency Toolkit
('SPOTT'') ESG policy transparency assessments for the worldwide timber and
pulp industries for 2021.

 

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