Equals Group issues further shares for acquisition of Oonex

The AIM-traded firm said the acquisition consideration was initially outlined to include the issue of 3,938,294 shares, which have already been issued.

Additionally, it included the potential issue of further tranches of up to 61,706 ‘BDR shares’ and up to 1,000,000 deferred consideration shares, subject to specific conditions.

Equals confirmed on Thursday that the conditions for the issue of the further tranche of 1,000,000 deferred consideration shares had been met, and they were allotted and issued conditionally on admission.

All shares issued as consideration for the acquisition were subject to a two-year lock-in agreement from the completion date.

However, the acquisition terms stipulated that the issue of BDR shares would depend on the recovery of outstanding receivables by Oonex on or before 31 December.

Equals said it had determined that the outstanding receivables would not be recovered by the specified deadline, and thus, the BDR Shares would not be issued, and the obligation to issue them would lapse.

The company said it had applied for the deferred consideration shares to be admitted to trading on AIM, which was expected at 0800 GMT on 4 January.

After admission, the company would have 187,627,898 shares in issue and admitted to trading, with none held in treasury.

At 1306 GMT, shares in Equals Group were down 1.23% at 123.46p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.