Acquisition and Placing

RNS Number:2279X
Debts.co.uk PLC
25 May 2007





                                Debts.co.uk plc

                        ("Debts.co.uk" or "the Company")


                   Acquisition and Placing and Trading update





                                   Highlights



   *Acquisition of Adie Financial Solutions Limited, a Scottish debt
    solutions provider


   *Broadens still further the Company's offering of debt solutions


   *Ability to provide Trust Deeds to customers in Scotland


   *Raising #1.63m via a placing by Seymour Pierce of 1,553,571 shares at 105 p 
    per share





                            Acquisition and Placing



The Board of Debts.co.uk, (DETS.L), the specialist advisors for personal debt
solution management, are pleased to announce that the Company has conditionally
raised #1.63 million before expenses by way of a placing (the "Placing") of
1,553,571 new ordinary shares (the "Placing Shares") at 105p per ordinary share
(the "Placing Price") and yesterday entered into a conditional agreement (the
"Acquisition Agreement") for the acquisition of the entire issued share capital
of Adie Financial Solutions Limited ("AFSL" or "Adie Financial Solutions"), a
Scottish debt solution company, (the "Acquisition"), for a consideration of
#400,000 in cash payable on completion together with the issue to the vendors of
an aggregate of 95,238 ordinary shares (the "Consideration Shares"), credited as
fully paid, in the capital of Debts.co.uk, to be issued at completion of the
Acquisition.


The net proceeds of the placing will be used in part to fund the cash portion of
the consideration for the Acquisition and to provide additional working capital
for the Company and its subsidiaries (the "Group").


Seymour Pierce, as agent for the Company, has conditionally placed the Placing
Shares at the Placing Price with institutional and other investors. Completion
of the Placing is conditional upon the conditions to completion of the
Acquisition Agreement being satisfied or waived in accordance with the terms of
the Acquisition Agreement, the acquisition agreement having completed in escrow
and the Placing Shares being admitted to trading on AIM. The Acquisition
Agreement was completed in escrow yesterday. The Placing Shares and the
Consideration Shares will, when issued and fully paid, rank pari passu in all
respects with the existing issued ordinary shares of the Company. An application
has been made for the admission of the Placing Shares to AIM and trading in the
Placing Shares is expected to commence on 31 May 2007. Upon admission of the
Placing Shares ("Admission"), the Company will have 20,998,015 ordinary shares
in issue. Final completion of the Acquisition ("Completion") is expected to
occur shortly after Admission and application for admission of the Consideration
Shares to AIM will occur shortly after Completion. Upon admission of the
Consideration Shares to AIM the Company will have 21,093,253 ordinary shares in
issue.


AFSL is based in Aberdeen with some 18 employees, including one Insolvency
Practitioner and is in negotiation to engage a second Insolvency Practitioner.
AFSL offers a range of services to both individual and corporate clients
including Trust Deeds (the Scottish equivalent of an IVA) and Company Voluntary
Arrangements. In the year to 31 December 2006, AFSL had sales of #872,623 and
EBITDA of #234,212. Based on the unaudited balance sheet of AFSL as at 31
December 2006, the net assets acquired as part of the acquisition were #408,987.


Commenting on the acquisition, Paul Carter, Chief Executive Officer of
Debts.co.uk said: "This is an exciting stage in the development of Debts.co.uk;
we are delighted to have raised the new monies which will facilitate the
acquisition of Adie Financial Solutions. I believe that the acquisition of AFSL
will help us to further build upon the expansion of the Group following the
acquisition of Neville Eckley & Co last October and will provide a great
opportunity for the Group to develop a presence in Scotland through AFSL's
established client base."


Alan Adie, director of AFSL commented "This is a significant step forward for
Adie Financial Solutions in terms of enabling us to increase our market presence
and the level of service we can provide to our clients."



                                 Trading Update


The Company is pleased to report that trading to date remains up to
expectations. Enquiries continue to grow and conversions across all our
operations are in line with budget. Our long experience and breadth of
operations and solutions continue to offer strength to our income stream as well
as ensuring best advice to debtors.


Despite the negative sentiment expressed in the media towards the sector and
IVAs in particular and the specific problems of some of our competitors we have
not experienced any downturn in this area. Our 3rd quarter showed an increase of
17.2% in IVAs concluded. Similarly our fee levels were firm.


We remain confident that the discussions taking place with lenders under the
umbrella of the Debt Resolution Forum will in the near future produce an
agreement which will be satisfactory to both sides. We have always been fully
supportive of moves to bring greater regulation and transparency to the
industry. It is clear to us as a participant in these discussions that there is
a definite desire on both sides to reach an agreement. There are a large number
of issues, especially procedural, to be resolved but we believe we will be less
impacted than many of our competitors. As the industry changes this will present
further opportunities and we are well placed to take advantage of these.


Overall growth continues and given the prevailing market conditions and our
capabilities we remain very confident of our future prospects.



Enquiries:

Paul Carter, Chief Executive Officer                               0870 990 9714
Debts.co.uk plc

Chris Steele                                                       0207 034 4759
Adventis Financial PR                                              07979 604 687

Mark Percy / Parimal Kumar                                         0207 107 8000
Seymour Pierce Limited








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