4th Jul 2016 08:16
LONDON (Alliance News) - Natural language generation technology company Arria NLG PLC on Monday tabled plans to move its primary listing to New Zealand and reshuffle its board as it looks to support its expansion plans.
Arria said it is now well-advanced in its plans to list the securities of a new holding company on the New Zealand Stock Exchange, along with a secondary listing on the Australian Stock Exchange.
Following the move, the company's primary listing will shift to New Zealand. At present, Arria's primary listing is on London's AIM market, but this will also change as the company moves to the Main Market from AIM in order to maintain its participation on the London market.
Arria said the change of listing will better support its global expansion plans.
In order to effect the changes, Arria said the Arria NLG Group business which will float in New Zealand will acquire all existing ordinary shares in the company. This will see the company put proposals will be put to holders of various components of the company's current capital structure, including loan note, warrant holders and employee options.
Further details of these plans will be announced in due course, Arria said, but should this become effective then Arria NLG Group, the New Zealand-based unit, will become the new parent company of the group.
As part of these changes, Chairman and Chief Executive Stuart Rogers will become non-executive chairman of Arria NLG Group, with Matthew Gould, a co-founder of the company and currently chief strategy officer, to become CEO. Wayne Thornhill will remain chief financial officer of the new group.
Conditional upon the change in listing completing successfully, Arria NLG is planning to raise GBP8.5 million via a public offering and subscription of Arria NLG Group shares.
"With the ever-increasing media and marketplace focus on the artificial intelligence category, and Arria's central place within this category which has been recognised in a number of recent technology media articles, Arria is confident that this strategic action of listing Arria NLG Group securities on both the NZSX and ASX exchanges, while maintaining a standard listing on the London Stock Exchange, will better provide the capital platform to support the group's global expansion plans within the AI category, and best serve the interests of the Company's shareholders," said Rogers.
Arria shares were untraded on Monday, having last traded at 17.50 pence.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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