SWP Group to delist and go private

It followed confirmation that, on 13 October, the offer for SWP by Friars 716 - which was announced on 21 September - was declared wholly unconditional.

The next day, Friars announced that at the first closing date of the offer, it had received acceptances or had agreed to acquire 182,456,793 SWP shares in aggregate, representing 89.8% of the existing issued share capital.

“As a result, pursuant to Rule 41 of the AIM Rules for Companies, the company - through its nominated adviser WH Ireland - has notified the London Stock Exchange of the proposed cancellation and intended cancellation time and date of 0700 GMT. on 14 November 2016,” the board said in a statement.

“[It] has agreed with the London Stock Exchange that, given that the offer has been declared wholly unconditional at a shareholding level in excess of 75%, cancellation will not require - and is therefore not conditional upon - shareholder consent in general meeting.”

SWP said there is no intention to provide a facility to enable SWP shares to be traded on any public share trading platform or to list the shares on an alternative stock exchange.

Therefore, any transaction in the SWP shares undertaken after the cancellation will only be capable of being undertaken by private sale.

“It is intended that a circular will be sent to shareholders in due course containing a notice convening a general meeting of the company to approve, inter alia, a resolution to re-register SWP as a private limited company,” the board added.

“The net result of these actions would be for SWP to become a private company with no ability for holders of SWP shares, who have not accepted the offer, to trade their SWP Shares in the future on a public trading platform.”