Issue of Equity
03 July 2003 - 5:01PM
UK Regulatory
RNS Number:1046N
Imagination Technologies Group PLC
03 July 2003
Placing of new Ordinary Shares
3 July 2003
Imagination Technologies Group plc ("Imagination Technologies" or the "Company")
today announces a proposed placing of 8,500,000 new Ordinary Shares,
representing 4.99 per cent. of the existing issued ordinary share capital of the
Company, at a price of 53.5p per share (the "Placing Price") to raise
approximately #4.4 million, net of estimated expenses (the "Placing"). The
proceeds of the Placing will be used to strengthen the Company's balance sheet.
The Placing
The Company is proposing to raise gross proceeds of #4.5 million, approximately
#4.4 million net of estimated expenses, by way of the issue of 8,500,000 new
Ordinary Shares at the Placing Price, representing 4.99 per cent. of the
existing issued ordinary share capital of the Company. The Placing Price
represents a discount of approximately 4.5 per cent. to the closing mid-market
price of the Ordinary Shares on 2 July 2003.
Pursuant to a placing agreement dated 2 July 2003 between HSBC and the Company
("the Placing Agreement"), HSBC has agreed to use its reasonable endeavours to
procure placees for 8,500,000 new Ordinary Shares at the Placing Price. The
Placing Agreement is conditional on, inter alia, the admission of the new
Ordinary Shares to be issued pursuant to the Placing to the Official List of the
UK Listing Authority and to trading on the London Stock Exchange's market for
listed securities. The Placing is not underwritten.
The new Ordinary Shares will rank pari passu in all respects with the existing
Ordinary Shares of Imagination Technologies.
The Placing is directed only at persons having professional experience in
matters relating to investments and, accordingly, the Placing Shares will only
be available to such persons.
Use of proceeds
The #4.4m from the Placing will be used to further strengthen the Company's
balance sheet. The Directors are of the opinion that this additional strength
will be commercially beneficial in enabling the Company to engage successfully
with global semiconductor and system companies.
Current trading & outlook
Imagination Technologies released its preliminary results for the twelve months
to 31 March 2003 on 19 May 2003. During last financial year, in spite of the
difficult market conditions, the Company closed a number of significant
licensing deals with major players including Intel, Sharp, Texas Instruments and
Renesas (the Hitachi and Mitsubishi Semiconductor merger). These design wins
clearly endorse both the technology and the overall strategy of the Company and
have already secured at least ten System-on-Chip (SoC) design wins, which form a
strong foundation for significant future growth in the Company's royalty
revenues.
The Directors continue to see significant opportunities and a growing number of
engagements for the Company's three key technologies and its unique SoC IP
solutions in applications, in particular, for the digital TV, mobile phone/PDA
graphics, digital radio/audio and in-car navigation markets. In the short term
the Company's technology revenues will be primarily driven by license and
customisation fees from deals already secured as well as from these new
opportunities. Whilst we can not be precise on timing, with an increasing range
of IP cores and on-going work to complete our IP offerings it is our aim to
secure in excess of five new licensing partnership agreements during the current
financial year.
The new Ordinary Shares
Application will be made for the new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to the
Official List of the UK Listing Authority and to trading on the London Stock
Exchange's market for listed securities. It is expected that dealings will
commence in the new Ordinary Shares on 10 July 2003. The new Ordinary Shares to
be issued pursuant to the Placing will, when issued, rank pari passu with the
existing Ordinary Shares including the right to receive all dividends or other
distributions hereafter declared, made or paid in respect of the ordinary share
capital of the Company. The new Ordinary Shares will initially be issued in
uncertificated form through the CREST system.
For further information, please contact:
Imagination Technologies Group plc Tel : 01923 260 511
Geoff Shingles, Chairman
Hossein Yassaie, CEO
Trevor Selby, CFO
HSBC Bank plc Tel : 020 7991 8888
John Mellett
James Taylor
College Hill Tel: 020 7457 2020
Matthew Smallwood
Kate Pope
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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