City round up: PZ Cussons; Renold; Evgen; SysGroup
PZ Cussons has made an offer to acquire the minority-held shares of PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc.
The Group intends to de-list the business from the Nigerian stock exchange. The Group believes the transaction will significantly simplify and strengthen its business in Nigeria, putting in place a sustainable structure and platform to maximise long-term growth and value.
The board has made the offer to the board of PZCN to acquire the 26.73% of issued share capital held by minority shareholders at a value of ₦21 per share, subject to prevailing market conditions, equivalent to a total cash consideration payable of £22.8 million1. Funding for the transaction is expected to come from existing Naira cash balances.
Manchester-headquartered PZ believes the offer to be attractive for the minority shareholders of PZCN, particularly given the recent macroeconomic developments and foreign exchange challenges. It is also confident that the offer is in the interests of Group investors, as part of the focus to deliver against its strategy and create sustainable shareholder value.
The offer will also be subject to the approval of the PZCN Board, regulatory approvals and vote of minority shareholders of PZCN.
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Renold
Renold will tell its AGM today that the industrial chains maker expects to report better than expected results.
Renold’s revenue for the half year period was £85.1m (FY23 equivalent £73.0m), a year-on-year increase of 16.6% at reported rates and 18.7% at constant exchange rates.
The €24.0 million acquisition of Spanish business in August 2022, contributed £5.4m.
Order intake for the Period was £74.2m, a decrease of 2.7% (FY23 equivalent £76.3m), or a 1.0% decrease at constant exchange rates. YUK contributed £4.9m to order intake in the period.
The order book as at 31 July 2023 of £86.0m remains higher than historic levels and the statement noted an “improvement in global supply chains, with improvements to delivery times, allowing customers to reduce forward order placement as certainty of deliveries increase, leading to a reduction and shortening of the order book”.
However, the order book at 31 July 2023 represents a decrease of 13.6% over the record high position at the end of the previous financial year.
Last week’s acquisition of the trading assets of Davidson Chain in Melbourne, Australia has enlarged Renold in Australia by 26%.
Net debt as at 31 July 2023 was £23.3m (representing 0.6x EBITDA1), a reduction of £6.5m (21.8%) from £29.8m as at 31 March 2023, reflecting the underlying cash generation of the business during the period.
Net debt at the half year (period ending 30 September 2023) is expected to increase, following the payment of £1.7m of deferred consideration relating to the YUK acquisition and the purchase consideration of £3.1m (AU$6.0m) for Davidson.
Additionally, the Group will bring forward the payment of the H2 pension contribution of approximately £2.6m, which enables efficiency gains in the investment portfolio.
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Barry Clare
Evgen Pharma, the AIM listed drug development company will appoint a new chair.
Barry Clare, will be retiring as Chairman at the next board meeting on 21 September 2023. The role of Chair will be passed to Dr Susan Foden, currently Senior Non-executive Director, on an interim basis.
The Company also announces the appointment of Toni Hänninen as interim Chief Financial Officer.
Barry Clare was appointed Non-Executive Chair at the foundation of Evgen in 2007 and has overseen the evolution of the company including the float on AIM in October 2015 and more recently the partnership with Stalicla SA exploring the potential therapeutic benefit of sulforaphane in autism.
Susan Foden has held NED roles at Vectura plc, BerGenBio AS, BTG plc and, recently served as Chair of Neurocentrx Ltd. She is currently Non-executive Deputy Chair of Australian biotech QBiotics, an Investment Committee member of CD3, the drug discovery initiative between the European Investment Fund and the University of Leuven in Belgium and a Trustee of the Roslin Foundation in Edinburgh, UK.
Evgen Pharma also confirms that Toni Hänninen will take over as interim CFO following Richard Moulson’s retirement in July.
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Exercise of share options and issue from treasury
AIM listed SysGroup has announced the exercise of 75,000 share options over ordinary shares of 1p each held under the terms of the Company’s EMI option scheme by Nick Guite, Chief Sales Officer.
