Admission to trading on AIM

 

TIDMZGP 
 
RNS Number : 5847M 
Z Group PLC 
02 February 2009 
 

2 February 2009 
To be embargoed for release at 8:01 a.m. 
 
 
Avisen plc 
 ("Avisen" or "the Company") 
(formerly Z GROUP plc) 
 
 
Admission to trading on AIM 
 
 
Further to the announcements made on 7 January 2009 and 30 January 2009, the 
Company has today completed the acquisition of Avisen Group Limited which was 
satisfied by the issue of 86,666,667 new ordinary shares in the capital of the 
Company. The enlarged issued share capital following the transaction was 
admitted to trading on AIM at 8.00 a.m. this morning with ticker AVI. The 
Company has 110,412,546 ordinary voting shares admitted to trading on AIM. The 
legal name of the Company has been changed to Avisen plc with immediate effect. 
 
 
Avisen provides strategic consultancy and software distribution services in the 
corporate performance management market. Further information on Avisen and its 
business is set out below. 
 
 
Board changes 
Following admission, Marcus Hanke, Andrew Turner, Louis Peacock and Keith 
Jones have been appointed to the board and Ian Smith has resigned from the 
board. All appointments and the resignation take effect immediately. 
 
 
Jon Claydon remains Non-Executive Chairman of the Company. In addition, Marcus 
Yeoman remains a Non-Executive Director and Duncan Neale remains as 
Finance Director. Marcus Hanke, Andrew Turner, Louis Peacock and Keith Jones 
have each joined the board. Marcus Hanke has been appointed as Chief Executive 
Officer. Andrew Turner, Louis Peacock and Keith Jones have each become executive 
Directors. Mr Turner is responsible for software distribution, Mr Peacock is 
responsible for European sales and operations and Mr Jones is responsible for 
African, Middle Eastern and Asian sales and operations. 
 
 
Brief details on the new directors are set out below: 
 
 
Marcus Hanke (aged 37), Chief Executive Officer 
Marcus Hanke began his career at Price Waterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers). 
He qualified as a chartered management accountant and has since worked in 
industry with Compass Group Plc and consulting with KPMG and Deloitte. In 2003, 
he formed an independent Performance Management company which was subsequently 
acquired by Cognos Inc. in 2004. In 2006, Mr Hanke joined Avisen as Managing 
Partner and has led the growth of the services business and the diversification 
into software distribution. 
 
 
Over the last 10 years Mr Hanke has led several corporate Performance Management 
programs rolled out in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and has advised some 
global software application vendors in this area. He specialises in corporate 
performance management, Value-based Management and the technology enablement of 
these processes. 
 
 
Andrew Turner (aged 42), Director 
Andrew Turner has over 18 years experience working with Global 2000 
organisations, software authors and leading consulting organisations. In his 
previous role as chief operating officer of Tesco Mobile and as retail 
operations director, Tesco Telecoms, he was part of the founding team of the new 
telecoms business unit within Tesco plc from 2003. Prior to telecoms, he spent a 
number of years in marketing and operations roles within Tesco's financial 
services joint venture with Royal Bank of Scotland plc. 
 
 
Prior to Tesco, he worked for MPS Group (NYSE:MPS) as operations director, where 
he was involved in driving the growth of their e-Business consulting 
organisation: Idea Integration. Mr Turner has also held senior marketing, 
product management and sales positions with SAP from 1997 to 1998 and 
worked with General Electric from 1993 to 1997 across their industrial and 
services businesses in information management and business change roles in UK 
and Europe. 
 
 
Louis Peacock (aged 38), Director 
Louis Peacock was born in South Africa where he qualified as a chartered 
accountant with Arthur Andersen before moving to the UK in 1996. He has 15 years 
of commercial, enterprise resource planning ("ERP") systems implementation, 
corporate performance management and business process re-engineering experience, 
the majority of this being with Maconomy A.S., the ERP software vendor which is 
listed in Copenhagen. Prior to joining Avisen, Mr Peacock was managing director 
of Solution Minds (UK) Ltd, a planning and business intelligence solutions 
business. Solution Minds (UK) Ltd was acquired by Avisen in January 2008. 
 
 
Keith Jones (aged 44), Director 
Keith Jones is a South African citizen and has over 20 years experience in the 
IT industry and more than 10 years in the Performance Management market. He has 
worked across Europe with clients including JP Morgan Chase and UBS before 
returning to South Africa to co-found Harvey Jones Systems (Proprietary) Limited 
in 1997.  Mr Jones grew the Harvey Jones business to be an international and 
award winning company which achieved recognition globally with Microsoft prior 
to its acquisition by Avisen in 2008. 
 
 
Further information relating to Messrs Hanke, Turner, Peacock and Jones, as 
required under schedule 2 of the AIM Rule for Companies, is set out below in the 
section entitled "Additional Information". 
 
 
Enquiries: 
 
 
+------------------------------------------------------+---------------------+ 
| Avisen plc                                           |                     | 
+------------------------------------------------------+---------------------+ 
| Duncan Neale, Finance Director                       |       020 7952 4043 | 
+------------------------------------------------------+---------------------+ 
| Marcus Yeoman, Non Executive Director                |                     | 
+------------------------------------------------------+---------------------+ 
|                                                      |                     | 
+------------------------------------------------------+---------------------+ 
| John East & Partners Limited (Nominated Adviser and  |                     | 
| Broker)                                              |                     | 
+------------------------------------------------------+---------------------+ 
| Simon Clements                                       |       020 7628 2200 | 
+------------------------------------------------------+---------------------+ 
|                                                      |                     | 
+------------------------------------------------------+---------------------+ 
| Bishopsgate Communications Ltd                       |       020 7562 3350 | 
+------------------------------------------------------+---------------------+ 
| Jenni Herbert                                        |                     | 
+------------------------------------------------------+---------------------+ 
 
 
Background information on Avisen 
Avisen is a business and technology consultancy specialising in performance 
management with a focus on strategy creation, development and implementation. It 
provides advisory services and software distribution of solutions in the 
corporate performance management market. Avisen aims to provide specialist 
advice to enable organisations to build more effective capabilities in order to 
manage the performance of their business and allow them to achieve their desired 
targets. The solutions and advice provided by Avisen are used to assist clients 
in a number of areas including development and implementation of improved 
business strategies, profitability management and cost reduction services and 
business or corporate performance management. 
 
 
Additional information 
 
 
Under Schedule 2, paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules, the following information is 
disclosed: 
 
 
Directorships held by Messrs Hanke, Turner, Peacock and Jones in the past five 
years: 
 
 
Directorships 
 
 
+--------------+----------------------------+----------------------------+ 
| Director     | Current                    | Past                       | 
|              | Directorships/Partnerships | Directorships/Partnerships | 
+--------------+----------------------------+----------------------------+ 
| Marcus Hanke | Avisen Group Limited       | Arnke Computing Limited    | 
|              | Healthcare Professionals   |                            | 
|              | Limited                    |                            | 
|              | Solution Minds Ltd         |                            | 
|              | Solution Minds (UK) Ltd    |                            | 
|              | TagetCPM Limited           |                            | 
|              |                            |                            | 
+--------------+----------------------------+----------------------------+ 
| Andrew       | Avisen Group Limited       | Avisen Services Limited    | 
| Turner       | Avisen Limited             | Everymind Limited          | 
|              | Compton Residents          | Infokee Limited            | 
|              | Management                 | Intelligent Solutions      | 
|              | Company Limited            | (Midlands)     Limited     | 
|              | Cree Limited               |                            | 
|              | Dawnglen Investments       |                            | 
|              | (Proprietary) Limited      |                            | 
|              | Enfourmen Limited          |                            | 
|              | Solution Minds (UK) Ltd    |                            | 
|              | Solution Minds Ltd         |                            | 
|              | TagetCPM Limited           |                            | 
|              | Wandisco Limited           |                            | 
|              |                            |                            | 
+--------------+----------------------------+----------------------------+ 
| Louis        | Avisen Group Limited       | Down Under Accounting      | 
| Peacock      | Dawnglen Investments       | Limited                    | 
|              | (Proprietary) Limited      | Dysfunctional Clothing     | 
|              | Solution Minds Ltd         | (UK)     Limited           | 
|              | Solution Minds (UK) Ltd    | Formzest Limited           | 
|              |                            | Lost Enterprises           | 
|              |                            | (Europe)     Limited       | 
|              |                            |                            | 
+--------------+----------------------------+----------------------------+ 
| Keith Jones  | Altivex 356 (Proprietary)  | Salford Ltd                | 
|              | Limited                    | Tomahawk Consultants       | 
|              | Dawnglen Investments       | Limited                    | 
|              | (Proprietary) Limited      |                            | 
|              | Harvey Jones Systems       |                            | 
|              | (Proprietary) Limited      |                            | 
|              | Jazz Spirit 1202           |                            | 
|              | (Proprietary) Limited      |                            | 
|              | Ritzshelf 144              |                            | 
|              | (Proprietary) Limited      |                            | 
|              | Turquoise Moon Trading 398 |                            | 
|              | (Proprietary) Limited      |                            | 
|              | Xanadu Properties 245      |                            | 
|              | (Proprietary) Limited      |                            | 
+--------------+----------------------------+----------------------------+ 
 
 
Interests of Messrs Hanke, Turner, Peacock and Jones and their connected persons 
in the share capital of the Company: 
 
 
+----------------------------+--------------------+--------------------+ 
|                            | Number of Ordinary |      Percentage of | 
|                            |             Shares | Ordinary Shares in | 
|                            |                    |              issue | 
+----------------------------+--------------------+--------------------+ 
| Andrew Turner              |         28,519,259 |              25.83 | 
+----------------------------+--------------------+--------------------+ 
| Marcus Hanke(1)            |         28,569,259 |              25.88 | 
+----------------------------+--------------------+--------------------+ 
| Louis Peacock              |          8,767,756 |               7.94 | 
+----------------------------+--------------------+--------------------+ 
| Keith Jones(2)             |          7,285,363 |               6.60 | 
+----------------------------+--------------------+--------------------+ 
 
 
(1) These Ordinary Shares are held in the name of Strand Nominees Limited 
(2) These Ordinary Shares are held by Keith Jones' partner, Odette McMahon 
Messrs Hanke, Turner, Peacock and Jones have confirmed there is no additional 
information under schedule 2, paragraph (g) of the AIM rules which needs to be 
disclosed. 
 
 
 
This information is provided by RNS 
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange 
   END 
 
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