Market Tracker weekly round-up—20 January 2017

23 Jan 2017

Printer Friendly Version

Weekly round-up of the latest corporate announcements, including reorganisations by Filta Group Holdings plc and Verona Pharma plc, a return of value to shareholders by Halfords Group plc, secondary offers by Forterra plc and Acal plc and an LR/AIM Rule transaction by British American Tobacco plc.

New deals announced:

LR/AIM Rules transactions

Announcement date	Company	Key information
17 January 2017	British American Tobacco plc	British American Tobacco has announced a Class 1 transaction under listing rules.

Reorganisations

Announcement date	Company	Key information
19 January 2017	Filta Group Holdings plc	Filta Group announced that, as contemplated in its admission document dated 27 October 2016, the company has completed a reduction of capital, whereby the entire amount standing to the credit of the company's share premium account has been cancelled. The distributable reserves created by the reduction of capital and after eliminating the previous deficit amounted to £3,078,825 as at 30 November 2016. The purpose of the reduction of capital is to create distributable reserves to support the board's dividend policy.
18 January 2017	Verona Pharma plc	Verona Pharma announced a proposed share capital reorganisation by way of a consolidation of its existing ordinary shares in connection with a registered initial public offering in the United States in order to achieve an appropriate listing price for the company's American Depositary Shares. The board proposes that every 50 existing ordinary shares of £0.001 each shall be consolidated into one consolidated ordinary share of £0.05. The proposed share consolidation will have the effect of reducing the number of ordinary shares in issue from 2,568,053,160 to 51,361,064. The share consolidation is conditional upon shareholder approval being given at the company's general meeting on 8 February 2017.

Returns of value to shareholders

Announcement date	Company	Key information
19 January 2017	Halfords Group plc	Halfords Group announced a special dividend of 10 pence per ordinary share, totalling approximately £20 million. This special dividend will be paid on 17 February 2017 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 27 January 2017.

Reverse Takeovers

Announcement date	Company	Key information
17 January 2017	Onzima Ventures plc acquisition of N4 Pharma Limited	Onzima has announced that it has agreed to conditionally acquire the 51% of N4 Pharma Limited which it does not already own.The consideration for the proposed acquisition will be satisfied through the issue of 36,409,210 new ordinary shares of 0.1p each in the share capital of Onzima. The proposed acquisition will be classified as a reverse takeover under the AIM rules and therefore subject to receiving Onzima shareholder approval.

Secondary offers

Announcement date	Issuer	Key information
20 January 2017	Acal plc	Acal announced a proposed fully underwritten placing of 6,418,308 new ordinary shares of 5 pence each in the company at a price of 220 pence per placing share, to raise gross proceeds of approximately £14.1 million. The placing shares represent will represent approximately 9.99% of the company's existing issued share capital.The net proceeds of the placing will be used to repay the acquisition consideration, as well as to fund any further contingent payment and for working capital and general corporate purposes.
16 January 2017	Forterra plc	Forterra announced that a major shareholder, LSF9 Concrete II Ltd, successfully placed 23,000,000 ordinary shares of 1 pence each in the company at a placing price of 170 pence per ordinary share with certain existing institutional shareholders, raising approximately £39.1 million before expenses.The placing represents approximately 11.5% of the company's entire issued share capital. The company's shares that are not sold in this placing are subject to a 90-day lock-up which is subject to customary exceptions and may otherwise only be waived with the consent of the joint bookrunners.