Volution Share Discussion Threads

[scotty1] 27/4/2011 08:16

New Facility and Notice of General Meeting
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TIDMFAN

RNS Number : 4990F

First Artist Corporation PLC

27 April 2011

FIRST ARTIST CORPORATION PLC

("First Artist" or "the Company" or "the Group")

New Facility

Posting of Circular

Notice of General Meeting

First Artist Corporation plc (AIM: FAN) is pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement to replace the existing bank facility with a GBP14,800,000 revolving credit facility (the "New Facility"). The terms of the New Facility are preferential to the charges currently being incurred under the existing facility.

The Company's interest charges will be reduced to 3.5 per cent. over LIBOR for the first 12 months rising to 4 per cent. over LIBOR for the second 12 months. The Company is currently paying a range of interest charges for its debt including 10 per cent. over LIBOR for the mezzanine facility.

In the course of finalizing The New Facility it has come to the attention of the Board that the Company has exceeded the limits on the borrowings power available to the Company contained within its Articles of Association.

The Articles of Association currently provide that the aggregate outstanding borrowings of the Company and its subsidiaries shall not at any time exceed an amount equal to three times the Adjusted Capital and Reserves (as defined in Article 114 of the Articles of Association).

The Board is proposing to remove the limits on the borrowing powers contained in its Articles of Association and seek ratification of the Company's continued entry into the existing facility which automatically novates to the New Facility. Both resolutions are required to be approved as a condition of entering into the New Facility. Thereafter the Company would be able to draw down against the New Facility with immediate effect.

The Company has posted to shareholders a Notice of General Meeting at which, inter alia, there will be proposed a special resolution, which removes the limits on the Company's borrowing powers contained in its Articles of Association.

The General Meeting of First Artist will be held at the offices of Seymour Pierce Limited, 20 Old Bailey, London EC4M 7EN on Tuesday 17 May 2011 at 11.30 am. The Circular will shortly be available on the Company's website at www.firstartist.com.

Commenting on today's announcement, Jeremy Barbera, Chief Executive of First Artist said: "Today marks another milestone in our restructuring of First Artist as we have reduced bank debt and negotiated a new multi-year revolving credit facility at considerably lower cost to the Company. We appreciate the ongoing support of Allied Irish Bank and look forward to benefitting from the new credit facility beginning on May 17(th) directly after the General Meeting."

[maxcashflow] 17/4/2011 00:24

I met Jeremy Barbera today at Master Investor, and was very impressed by the First Artist pitch. Have any of you chaps/chapettes researched his background? Apparently he was very successful with his MSGI Direct business (he said that he sold it for $1.5bn)

But his later MSGI Security business (now renamed to MSGI Technology) seems to have been a disaster - it's $29m in debt, has no assets and zero revenues, and looks like it is about to go under. Even its lawyers are running away due to non payment. And yet it has just announced a move to Silicon Valley where it is about to embark on a new venture in NanoTechnology.





Just wondered what you thought and whether this is something that has already been explained somehow.

[moorsie2] 04/4/2011 09:55

last chance to lock in Tax year gains.

I can see this one take off again from Wednesday as sales dry up

[argy2] 03/4/2011 09:41

From TW/t1ps list of '5 to double' out this weekend:

First Artist at 34.5p. I reckon the last non core assets (football) will be sold soon by the new management team. The core theatre business will make a pre and post tax profit (on a normalised basis) of £4.5 million this year and £5.5 million next. Debt will be repaid steadily and cleared within 3 years. On a PE of 12 (not demanding for a cash generative growth business with great management and an A* shareholder list (including me I should note) you get a market cap of £55 million (on the November 2011 numbers) which is 84p per share.

[protean] 31/3/2011 22:11

And on the GECR website:

[protean] 31/3/2011 13:55

Yes true, but certainly a good sign imo.

Going well today.

[colva] 31/3/2011 06:58

Hi Moorsie

Yes the key is going to be the earnings/debt ratio - and IF they can do EBITDA of 5m then the debt will be paid down in about 3 years and the share price should be heading north of 60p - at the moment 5m is just the forcast - i have an initial target share price of 45p - if they do 5m and continue to grow the company going forward then even 60p would look cheap . The managment seem to be well regarded and have brought in some very savvy investors - but i'll keep my 45p share price target for now.

[moorsie2] 30/3/2011 20:27

The key issue here is not the equity vs debt ratio but rather the earnings to debt ratio.

If Ebitda is £5M per annum and debt is 10M then the ratio os a paltry 2. This is very low and manageable.

Valued at a multiple of 6 times Ebitda puts the 66M shares on a fair price of 45p.

If the business shows progress beyond 5M Ebitda then we are getting into the 60p range we all expect here

[protean] 30/3/2011 18:38

Nigel Wray buying such a significant stake is definitely worth paying attention to. His shrewd decisions over time have got him into the rich list and obviously he thinks there is significant upside in the FAN share price.

[colva] 30/3/2011 17:09

Even after this latest placing their debt will still be about 10m - using a p/e multiple of 10 and coming up with a target share price of 68p makes the stock look very cheap - but with a share price of 30p the mkt cap is 20m so 10m of debt is significant - they have said that they,r going to pay down the debt ASAP but until we actually see it i think valuing the company on a EV/E ratio would be more realistic - having said that - i still think its good value.

[nfs] 30/3/2011 10:23

so 66m shares at 30p is 19.8m mkt cap.Suppose the EBITDA(no tax and soon to be reduced interest) is about 5m implies a PE of 4

[daytraders] 30/3/2011 09:47

dam 23p placing, will buy at around that level when hit!

[argy2] 30/3/2011 09:47

As if by magic:



Placing


TIDMFAN

RNS Number : 9001D

First Artist Corporation PLC

30 March 2011

FIRST ARTIST CORPORATION PLC

("First Artist" or the "Company")

Placing

Conversion of Unsecured Loan

Related Party Transaction

Issue of Equity

Total Voting Rights

First Artist Corporation plc (AIM: FAN) is pleased to announce that it has placed a total of 8,700,000 new ordinary of 2.5 pence each (the "Placing Shares") at a price of 23 pence per share (the "Placing Price") to raise GBP2 million before expenses (the "Placing"). The Placing is conditional upon admission of the Placing Shares to trading on AIM.

The net proceeds from the Placing, representing new and existing investors from the UK, led by London-based entrepreneur Nigel Wray, will be used to reduce debt and for working capital. This is part of the Company's strategy to de-leverage the Group and enable the Board to continue re-positioning the Group's businesses.

Pivot Entertainment LLC ("Pivot") has agreed to capitalize the unsecured loan that it made available to the Group as set out in the announcement of 08 December 2010 ("the Loan"). The Company has taken the decision to convert the debt (consisting of GBP1,480,323 in principal and interest) into 7,401,615 ordinary shares of the Company ("the Conversion Shares") at a conversion price of 20 pence per share ("the Conversion Price"). The Directors believe that the Conversion Price reflects the early stage investment made by Pivot as well as reducing the indebtedness of the Group.

As Pivot is a significant shareholder in the Company, the conversion of the Loan into new ordinary shares by Pivot is a related party transaction under the AIM Rules. The Directors (less Mr. Barbera and Mr. Stoller) consider, having consulted with its Nominated Adviser, Seymour Pierce, that the terms of the Transaction are fair and reasonable insofar as the shareholders are concerned.

As previously stated in the announcement made on 8 December 2010, the Company expressed its intention to replace the existing bank facility with a new revolving credit facility. The Company is presently arranging for a new bank facility with Allied Irish Bank (AIB) which based upon recent repayments of certain amounts of debt, will provide the Company with much more favorable interest rates and terms.

An announcement will be made at the appropriate time if there is any further change in the financial condition of the Group.

Application has been made for the admission ('Admission') of the Placing Shares and Conversion Shares to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. It is expected that Admission will become effective and that dealings will commence on 03 April 2011. Upon issue, the Placing Shares and Conversion Shares will rank pari passu in all respects with the Company's existing Ordinary Shares.

Following the Placing and the conversion of the Loan, the total number of shares in issue is 65,957,718. There are no shares held in treasury. The total number of voting rights in the Company is therefore 65,957,718.

The above figure of 65,957,718 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company, under the Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Commenting on today's announcement, Jeremy Barbera, Chief Executive of First Artist, said:

"During February and March we have successfully raised GBP4 million in equity, principally to reduce bank debt, and strengthen our balance sheet. We are very grateful to Nigel Wray as well as all our other shareholders for the strong vote of confidence in our ability to re-position First Artist as a leading transatlantic media and entertainment business."

[argy2] 29/3/2011 15:23

Price drifting back. Looks like another placing c20p due soon?

[tara7] 07/3/2011 11:50

This is one of my TEN for 2011 and as of today its the best so far, posted at 7.75p just over 3 months ago.!!

Just shows what these tiny AIM stocks can do.!!

[moorsie2] 07/3/2011 11:46

Well good luck to you with that Malcolm!

55p and you have my shares!

[malcolmmm] 07/3/2011 10:54

chart looking good for rise to 85p

[parvez] 07/3/2011 10:25

any reason why the price rise?

[tsmith2] 07/3/2011 08:38

graphing point to another sharp rise!

[tsmith2] 02/3/2011 19:14

I believe Dwentyers are involved with marketing the Wizard of Oz..