Primorus Investments PLC Fresho Update and Further Investment (8397V)

TIDMPRIM

RNS Number : 8397V

Primorus Investments PLC

08 November 2017

Primorus Investments

FRESHO INVESTMENT UPDATE AND SECOND ROUND INVESTMENT AT 40% UPLIFT TO INITIAL INVESTMENT

Primorus Investments ("Primorus" or the "Company") (PRIM.L) is pleased to provide the following update on Fresho Pty Ltd ("Fresho"), an investment in line with its investment mandate.

Following a meeting with management in Melbourne, Australia, the Board is pleased to report that the Company has been able to participate for A$75,000 in an oversubscribed A$2m placing at A$0.38 per share representing a 40% premium to the original investment price of A$0.27 per share in September 2016. Important points about the capital raise and business update are:

This capital raise by Fresho was only available to existing shareholders and initially sought only A$1.5m but it was agreed A$2m would be taken.

The capital raise replaces a previously flagged larger capital raise in Q1 2018 largely because the management of Fresho believe the Australian business is expected to reach breakeven on a cashflow basis earlier than anticipated.

Following the capital raise Fresho will have just under A$4m in cash available to continue to drive the Australian business, innovate and expand the product offering, facilitate the newly launched New Zealand business and the soon to be launched Singapore business.

Management believe existing contractual users alone should drive annualized gross order value significantly higher over the next 6 months. With additional user wins and international growth this may increase even further.

High-profile Australian technology investor/entrepreneur David Gold has joined the Board as a non executive director.

Following this investment Primorus will own 1,308,479 shares representing approximately 3.1% of the issued capital in Fresho.

Alastair Clayton, Executive Director commented: "Once again we came away from our meeting with management at Fresho hugely impressed with the progress and grateful to be able to participate pro rata in a second round funding that was only available to existing shareholders. We believe the very attractive pricing of the issue was very much as a reward and a thank you to existing shareholders. We believe that, should the Fresho platform continue to deliver the observed and expected growth rates in 2018, the next investment taken from external investors may be at multiples of the current A$0.38 issue price."

This investment is a demonstration of the Primorus business model where early-stage investing is rewarded with increasing valuation waypoints on the path to a liquidity event via either IPO or trade sale.

We expect Fresho to receive serious interest from both sector participants and the wider investment community in 2018 and look forward to regular updates as the business accelerates further. It is both telling and very welcome to see the appointment of David Gold to the Board given his deep understanding of, and success in, the technology space."

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.

About Primorus

Primorus aims to be the leading early-stage investor in pre-IPO and listed companies with a particular focus on natural resources (primarily energy), consumer services and technology. Through its listed structure Primorus may provide individual investors a route to access a range of private and pre-IPO opportunities that are usually the preserve of family offices, VC and private equity funders.

For further information, please contact:

 
 Primorus Investments 
  plc:                        [phone] 
 Alastair Clayton 
 
 Nominated Adviser:           [phone] 
 Cairn Financial Advisers 
  LLP 
 James Caithie / Sandy 
  Jamieson 
 
 Broker:                      [phone] 
 Optiva Securities Limited 
 Christian Dennis / Jeremy 
  King 
 

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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November 08, 2017 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)