Unigel Group PLC Admission to Trading and First Day of Dealings (2959X)

TIDMUNX

RNS Number : 2959X

Unigel Group PLC

26 August 2022

26 August 2022

Unigel Group plc

(the "Company" or the "Group")

Admission to Trading and First Day of Dealings

Unigel Group plc (AQSE:UNX), the holding company for its wholly-owned operating subsidiary, Unitape Limited ("Unitape"), and its 60 per cent. owned operating subsidiary, Unigel (UK) Limited ("Unigel"), which develop and manufacture components used in the production of fibre optic cables, announces that trading in its ordinary shares will commence on the Aquis Stock Exchange Growth Market ("AQSE") at 8:00 a.m., today ( 26 August 2022), under the ticker "UNX" and ISIN: GB00BPP4RY41 .

The Company has been admitted to the Access Segment of AQSE ("Admission") following successful completion of a subscription, raising gross proceeds of c.GBP0.8m.

The Board of the Company comprises Kwang Hua ("Eric") Chhoa, Chief Executive Officer, Gary Revel-Chion, Director, Sven ("Janne") Sjoden, Non-executive Chairman, and Azlinda Ariffin, Non-executive Director. Further information on the directors' biographies can be found below.

The issued share capital of the Company on Admission comprises 11,285,000 ordinary shares.

Overview of the subsidiaries

Unigel

Unigel formulates, manufactures, and markets thixotropic gels primarily to the fibre optic cable industry. In addition, it also makes specialty gel products for the construction, green energy, and high voltage transmission apparatus markets. For the year ended 31 December 2021, Unigel had revenue of GBP12.4m and profit after tax of c.GBP0.2m.

Unitape

Unitape commenced its business activities as a trader of co-polymer steel tapes, and after 10 years of trading, the company progressed to backward integrate into the slitting of co-polymer jumbo rolls into steel tapes. To facilitate this, the company established a US subsidiary-Unitape (USA), LLC and leased a 30,000 sq ft production space in Conover, North Carolina for its slitting business. In 2017, Unitape (USA), LLC became a wholly owned subsidiary of Unitape. For the year ended 31 December 2021, Unitape had revenue of GBP9.3m and profit after tax of c.GBP0.4m.

Eric Chhoa, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"Our admission onto the AQSE Growth market represents an important milestone for the Group. Access to capital markets will support future business expansion and talent acquisition. We have assembled a strong board to guide the Group and we are excited to progress with the support of our shareholders."

The Company's Admission Document is available to view here: www.unigel.com

The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.

Enquiries:

 
 Unigel Group plc 
 Eric Chhoa                            [phone] 
  Lim Bee Khin                          [phone] 
 
 Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (AQSE 
  Corporate Adviser) 
 James Lewis 
  Jo Turner 
  Ludovico Lazzaretti                  [phone] 
 
 

Further information

Thixotropic gels

Thixotropic gels are made from a proprietary formulation of specialty polymers, high grade base-oils and other specialty active chemical compounds. Typically, fibre optic cables are manufactured in special manufacturing environments at a high production speed. As a protective buffering agent for the fibre optic cable, the thixotropic gel must meet and maintain an operating viscosity range to do its work effectively. However, the operating viscosity inside the cable is too high for thixotropic gels to be applied into the buffer tubes without lowering the viscosity of the thixotropic gel. The viscosity of the thixotropic gel must be reduced to enable precision filling of the buffer tubes with thixotropic gels at high speed. To enable this to happen, buffering gels used for fibre optic cables are engineered to be thixotropic. Thixotropy is essentially a time-dependent sheer thinning property. When sheer stress (or agitation) is applied to the thixotropic gel during the production process, the viscosity of the thixotropic gel is reduced, enabling the less viscous gel to be applied easily and efficiently at high production speed. After the sheered thixotropic gel is flooded into the buffer tube, the thixotropic gel will return to its original viscosity after a finite period, allowing it to perform its intended purpose as a buffering agent. It is estimated that an average kilometre of optical fibre cable uses approximately 10-25 kg of thixotropic gel as a buffering agent. The quantity of thixotropic gel used is dependent on cable design and construction, as well as the fibre count inside a fibre optic cable.

Steel tapes

Armoured fibre optic cables have a layer of co-polymer steel tape wrapped around a pre-jacketed cable. In a typical cable production process, semi-finished pre-jacketed cables are wrapped by co-polymer or laminated steel tapes as the cable goes through a "wrapper die" which forms a concentric steel wrap before the cable is extruded or jacketed with high density polypropylene (HDPE). The combination of the laminated steel tape and HDPE jacket as a protective shell prevents moisture ingression and physical impact. With enhanced physical properties, steel tape armoured fibre optic cables can be deployed without the use of ducts in demanding physical environment from high traffic urban roads to water-logged terrains in suburban or rural conditions.

Directors

Sven Janne Sjödén (Age 77), Non-executive Chairman

Janne was appointed as Chairman of Unigel Group plc with effect from Admission. Janne has been the Chairman of Unigel since 2014. Janne had an extensive career at Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, Sweden where he held numerous leadership and senior management roles including as the President and board member of Ericsson Network Technologies AB. He has previously served as an adviser to Handelsbanken AB, and was the Chairman and board member of The Hoverline Group AB in Sweden from 2008 to 2013. Janne graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Uppsala, Sweden.

Kwang Hua ("Eric") Chhoa (Age 57), Chief Executive Officer

Eric was appointed to the Board of Unigel Group plc on 23 February, 2022. Eric has founded, built and acquired numerous companies in the telecommunications cable, cable components and services areas over the past 25 years. In 2014 and 2017, Hikari Capital Limited, a company which Eric controls, acquired 60 per cent. of Unigel and 100 per cent. of Unitape to build a cables component supply ecosystem for the global fibre optic cables industry. Eric graduated summa cum laude from Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan, and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts.

Gary Revel-Chion (Age 63), Director

Gary was appointed as a Director of Unigel Group plc on 11 July, 2022. Gary is the current Financial Controller of Unigel and Unitape. Gary is a Chartered Accountant with over 35 years of experience across a wide range of industries. Prior to running his own accounting practice, Gary was employed at Robson Rhodes as a Senior Audit Manager. In 2018, Gary joined Unigel as Head of Finance where he was responsible for the financial operations of the business. Gary graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Accountancy and Economics from the University of Hull, England, and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

Azlinda Ezrina Binti Ariffin (Age 53), Non-executive Director

Azlinda was appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director of Unigel Group plc with effect from Admission. Azlinda has over 28 years of experience as a corporate lawyer and is a consulting partner at Withersworldwide LLP. She is also the founder and CEO of Dricopax Capital Limited, a multi-family office boutique firm in London. In April 2021, Azlinda was appointed to the board of MobilityOne Limited, an AIM listed company as an Independent Non-Executive Director. Azlinda graduated with an LLB (Hons) from University College of Wales, Cardiff. She is a barrister at Gray's Inn, and a member of the Law Society of England and Wales.

For more information please visit : www.unigel.com

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August 26, 2022 02:30 ET (06:30 GMT)