Future PLC Completion of Acquisition (8107Z)

TIDMFUTR

RNS Number : 8107Z

Future PLC

05 September 2018

5 September 2018

Future plc

Completion of acquisition of the B2C business of Purch

Future plc, the global platform for specialist media, announces that the acquisition of the B2C business of Purch Inc. is now complete.

Zillah Byng-Thorne, Future plc's Chief Executive said:

"This acquisition substantially strengthens Future's presence in the US market, boosting our scale and momentum while further diversifying our revenue streams. Purch B2C's leading brands also give us market leadership in the highly attractive consumer technology market.

"In addition, its data driven content model is highly complementary to our existing capabilities and will accelerate our progress as we continue to build our global platform for specialist media."

Enquiries:

 
Future plc                                      via Instinctif 
                                                  Partners 
 
  Zillah Byng-Thorne, Chief Executive Officer 
  Dom Del Mar, Investor Relations 
 Numis Securities Limited (Financial Adviser, 
  Joint Bookrunner 
  and Joint Broker to Future)                    020 7260 1000 
 Nick Westlake, Mark Lander, Hugo Rubinstein, 
  Toby Adcock 
 
 
  Nplus1 Singer Capital Markets Limited (Joint 
  Bookrunner 
  and Joint Broker to Future)                     020 7496 3000 
 Mark Taylor, James White 
 
  Instinctif Partners                             020 7427 1412 
 
  Kay Larsen, Hannah Campbell 
 

Directors' shareholdings following completion of the Rights Issue and Acquisition

Following completion of the Rights Issue and Acquisition, the holdings of each of the Directors in the Ordinary Shares of the Company following their acquisition of New Ordinary Shares pursuant to the Rights Issue (and aggregated with those of their closely associated persons) are detailed in the following table:

 
 Director/PDMR               No. of Ordinary     New Ordinary      No. of Ordinary 
                             Shares pre-Rights    Shares taken    Shares post-Rights 
                                   Issue               up               Issue 
 Richard Huntingford(1)            Nil              10,500             24,500 
                           -------------------  --------------  -------------------- 
 Zillah Byng-Thorne(2,3)         142,559            131,811            274,370 
                           -------------------  --------------  -------------------- 
 Penny Ladkin-Brand(4)            70,295            52,720             123,015 
                           -------------------  --------------  -------------------- 
 Alan Newman(5)                    Nil               3,750              8,750 
                           -------------------  --------------  -------------------- 
 James Hanbury(6)                 45,436            23,502             68,938 
                           -------------------  --------------  -------------------- 
 

(1) Richard Huntingford purchased 14,000 shares on 18 July 2018 following the launch of the Rights Issue. Further details are contained in the announcement published by the Company on 20 July 2018

(2) Zillah Byng-Thorne elected to take up 83.5% of her rights, and sold a total of 17,607 nil paid rights. Further details are contained in the announcements published by the Company on 8 August and 17 August 2018

(3) Max Thorne, a person closely associated with Zillah Byng-Thorne, held nil Ordinary Shares prior to the Rights Issue, acquired 42,500 nil paid rights and now holds 42,500 Ordinary Shares. Further details are contained in the announcement published by the Company on 17 August 2018

(4) Mark Brand, a person closely associated with Penny Ladkin-Brand, held 7,955 Ordinary Shares prior to the Rights Issue and now holds 13,921 Ordinary Shares

(5) Alan Newman purchased 5,000 shares on 20 July 2018 following the launch of the Rights Issue. Further details are contained in the announcement published by the Company on 23 July 2018

(6) The announcement of 23 August erroneously set out that James Hanbury had acquired 34,077 Ordinary Shares pursuant to the Rights Issue and this has been corrected in the table above

An amended notification below , made pursuant to Article 19(3) of the Market Abuse Regulation, provides further details of James Hanbury's shareholding:

 
 1    Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities 
       / person closely associated 
 a)   Name                        James Hanbury 
     --------------------------  ----------------------------------------------- 
 2    Reason for the notification 
     --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 a)   Position/status             Non-executive director 
     --------------------------  ----------------------------------------------- 
 b)   Initial notification        Amendment 
       /Amendment 
     --------------------------  ----------------------------------------------- 
 3    Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, 
       auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor 
     --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 a)   Name                        Future plc 
     --------------------------  ----------------------------------------------- 
 b)   LEI                         213800K2581YRLEXV353 
     --------------------------  ----------------------------------------------- 
 4    Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for 
       (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; 
       (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have 
       been conducted 
     --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 a)   Description of the financial 
       instrument, type of instrument        Ordinary shares of 15p each 
       Identification code                   GB00BYZN9041 
     -----------------------------------  -------------------------------------- 
 b)   Nature of the transaction   Acquisition of ordinary shares pursuant 
                                   to the take up of nil paid rights following 
                                   completion of the Rights Issue 
     --------------------------  ----------------------------------------------- 
 c)   Price(s) and volume(s)       Price(s)       Volume(s) 
                                    GBP3.03 per 
                                     share         23,502 
     --------------------------  ----------------------------------------------- 
 d)   Aggregated information 
 
       - Aggregated volume          23,502 ordinary shares 
 
       - Price                      GBP71,211.06 
     --------------------------  ----------------------------------------------- 
 e)   Date of the transaction     21/08/2018 
     --------------------------  ----------------------------------------------- 
 f)   Place of the transaction    London Stock Exchange (XLON) 
     --------------------------  ----------------------------------------------- 
 
 

About Future:

The Media division focuses on being at the forefront of digital innovation with three complementary revenue streams: e-commerce, events and digital advertising. It operates in a number of sectors including the high growth technology and games markets and has a number of leading brands including Techradar, Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, Space.com, PC Gamer, GamesRadar+, The Photography Show, Generate and Golden Joysticks.

The Magazine division focuses on publishing specialist content, with 86 publications and over 440 bookazines published per year, and a total global circulation of over one million. The Magazine portfolio spans technology, games and entertainment, music, creative and photography, hobbies (which includes knowledge, outdoor leisure and field sports) and home interest. Its titles include Classic Rock, Total Film, How It Works, Digital Camera, Homebuilding & Renovating and All About History. It holds market leading positions in the UK in creative and photography, music, games and home renovation.

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact [e-mail] or visit www.rns.com.

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September 05, 2018 02:01 ET (06:01 GMT)