Styles & Wood Group Regulatory News (STY)

7 Nov 2006 08:00

Styles & Wood Group PLC 07 November 2006 THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION (DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY) IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, THE STATE OF ISRAEL, THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND, JAPAN OR THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA AND THEIR RESPECTIVE TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS. Tuesday, 7 November 2006 Styles & Wood Group plc ('Styles & Wood' or the 'Group') Admission to the Official List and to trading on the London Stock Exchange Market capitalisation of £97m at placing price of 150 pence per share Styles & Wood, a leading provider, in revenue terms, of retail property services to premier UK retailers, is pleased to announce its admission to the Official List and that dealings in its Ordinary Shares on the London Stock Exchange ('Admission') commenced at 8.00am today. On Admission, the Group had 64,493,641 Ordinary Shares in issue at a price of 150 pence per share giving it a market capitalisation £96.7 million. Styles & Wood will be classified in the support services sector and will trade under the symbol 'STY'. The shares were placed with a wide range of institutional investors in the United Kingdom, having been significantly oversubscribed and priced at the higher end of expectations. Placing Highlights • Placing of £71.9m - 47.9m Ordinary Shares of 1p each at a price of 150p per Ordinary Share • Market capitalisation on listing of £96.7m • Helps raise the Group's market profile and support continued organic growth • Raises £16m net of expenses to provide greater financial flexibility to pursue acquisitions and pay down debt • Provides liquidity for shareholders, a partial exit for managing shareholders and a full exit for the private equity partner Placing Statistics Placing Price 150 pence Number of Ordinary Shares in issue at Admission 64,493,641 Market capitalisation of the Company at Admission at the Placing Price £96.7million Number of New Ordinary Shares being placed on behalf of the Company 11.9m Number of Sale Shares being placed on behalf of the Selling Shareholders 36.1m Percentage of Enlarged Share Capital represented by the New Ordinary Shares 18.4% Percentage of Enlarged Share Capital represented by the Sale Shares 55.9% Percentage of Enlarged Share Capital held by Directors and certain members of the 25.8% management team Estimated net proceeds of the Placing to be received by the Company million (netof £16.0 estimated expenses of £1.8million) Gerard Quiligotti, Chairman of Styles & Wood, commented: 'We are delighted with the response we have had from investors. We now have the platform in place to continue our excellent growth record, underpinned by the longstanding relationships we have with our customers and our unique service offering. We are very excited about the future prospects for the business and look forward to delivering value for our shareholders.' Enquiries: Styles&Wood Group plc Tel: 0161 926 6000 Gerard Quiligotti, Chairman Neil Davies, Chief Executive Graham Clark, Finance Director Investec Investment Banking Tel: 020 7597 5970 Erik Anderson David Currie Paul Gray College Hill Tel: 020 7457 2020 Matthew Gregorowski Mark Garraway Notes to Editors: Styles&Wood Styles & Wood employs approximately 380 staff and operates from four offices located in Altrincham (its headquarters), London, Nottingham and Milton Keynes. Styles & Wood provides its store development services through four distinct divisions: StoreFit is the Group's core operation and the UK's leading fit-out business to the retail sector in revenue terms. The division provides project management and implementation services for new store fit-out, existing store refurbishment and extension programmes to its customers typically through long term framework arrangements. StorePlanning is Styles & Wood's retail design development division providing a range of services including surveying, space planning, design development, architectural services and project management. StorePlanning provides major retailers with a planning service that focuses on space optimisation and the provision of working design schemes. StoreCare provides project management solutions that support retailers in the use of their store portfolio once the new store or store refurbishment becomes operational. StoreCare has a team of regionally based property management experts, which allows it to project manage and deliver multiple projects with minimum disruption to the retailer. In addition, StoreCare can undertake, on behalf of its customers, compliance consultancy and implementation services to ensure compliance with disability discrimination, health and safety, environmental and asbestos related regulations. StoreData provides retailers with technology based, property information solutions that can manage significant amounts of data about their property portfolios, including the provision of online information on design standards, cost and programme tracking. The potential benefit of this single source of property intelligence is to save time, money and inconvenience for the retailer. For further information please visit the company website, www.stylesandwood.co.uk Words and expressions where defined in this announcement shall have the same meaning as in the prospectus of the Company dated 2 November 2006. Investec Investment Banking, a division of Investec Bank (UK) Limited ('Investec'), which is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Services Authority, is advising the Company and no one else in relation to the Placing and Admission. Investec will not be responsible to anyone other than the Company for providing the protections afforded to the customers of Investec or for providing advice in relation to the Placing and Admission, the contents of this announcement or any transaction, arrangement or other matter referred to herein. This announcement does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States of America, nor may the securities be offered or sold in the United States of America absent registration or an exemption from registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended in the rules and regulations thereunder. There is no intention to register the Ordinary Shares in the United States of America or to conduct a public offering of securities in the United States of America. The distribution of this announcement, any related documents, and the offer sale and/or issue of the Ordinary Shares in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law. No action has been taken to permit a public offer of the Ordinary Shares or possession or distribution of this announcement. Persons into whose possession this announcement (or any other offer or publicly material or application form relating to the Ordinary Shares) comes are required to inform themselves about and to observe any such restrictions. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of such jurisdiction. This announcement does not constitute or form part of an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for, Ordinary Shares to any person in any jurisdiction to whom or in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful and, in particular, is not for release, publication or distribution in or into the United States of America, Canada, Australia, the State of Israel, Republic of Ireland, Japan or the Republic of South Africa and their respective territories and possessions. The issue of the Ordinary Shares has not been and will not be registered under the applicable securities law of the United States of America, Canada, Australia, the State of Israel, the Republic of Ireland, Japan or the Republic of South Africa. The contents of this announcement, which have been prepared by and are the sole responsibility of the Company, have been approved by Investec solely for the purposes of section 21(2)(b) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.