THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS RESTRICTED AND IS NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN, INTO OR FROM THE UNITED STATES, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, JAPAN, THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH SUCH RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL.
Arena Events Group plc (AIM: ARE) (“Arena”, the “Company” and together with its subsidiaries and subsidiary undertakings, the “Group”), is pleased to announce that it has conditionally raised £9.5 million (before expenses) by way of a subscription for 60,000,000 new Ordinary Shares (the “Subscription”) and a placing of 35,000,000 new Ordinary Shares (the “Placing” and together with the Subscription, the “Capital Raising” ), in each case at a price of 10 pence per share . The net proceeds of the Capital Raising will be used to fund the Group’s working capital requirements.
Highlights:
• Conditionally raised £9.5 million (before expenses) through the Capital Raising.
• Issue Price of 10 pence per New Ordinary Share, representing a 71 per cent. premium to the VWAP of an Ordinary Share for the five business days preceding the date of this announcement of 5.8 pence.
• The Company’s lender, HSBC, has approved the additional drawdown from the existing loan facilities of £4.75 million.
• The Directors believe, on the basis of the facts currently available to them, that the net proceeds from the Capital Raising, in conjunction with the additional credit facilities made available to the Company, should provide sufficient working capital for the Company for the foreseeable future.
• The Subscription and the Placing are inter-conditional and conditional, inter alia, on the passing by Shareholders of certain Resolutions at the General Meeting to be held on 14 April 2020.
• The Group has been actively involved in the provision of disaster relief solutions, in all regions, with a view to assisting the relevant authorities in controlling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Further information about the Capital Raising is set out in the Appendix to this announcement.
The person responsible for arranging the release of this announcement on behalf of the Company is Greg Lawless, Chief Executive Officer of the Company.
Greg Lawless, Chief Executive Officer of Arena commented:
“We are delighted with the support we have received from our shareholders and lending bank. The funds raised will allow the Group to continue operating as it navigates its way through this difficult period.
“We have been working tirelessly to implement plans to limit the human, financial and commercial consequences of this terrible health disaster on all Arena stakeholders. We have initiated significant cash conservation initiatives across all divisions of the Group, whilst ensuring the health and safety of all our employees to secure the long term future of the Group.
“These initiatives have significantly reduced the Group’s future monthly cash outflows which together with the additional financial support from our shareholders and our lending bank puts the Group in a strong financial position to weather the very difficult current market environment.
“We continue to work with all our customers in relation to events scheduled to take place after May in order to mitigate the possible financial and operational impacts in the case further events are cancelled.
“I would like to thank, all of our employees and all stakeholders for the incredible support we have received during these unprecedented and extraordinary times.”
