4th Apr 2019 14:50
LONDON (Alliance News) - Marble quarrying and finishing company Fox Marble Holdings PLC on Thursday said it has acquired Green Power Shpk and Scope Shpk for GBP1.3 million in shares.
Shares in Fox Marble were down 4.4% at 7.52 pence on Thursday afternoon.
Green Power is the licence holder for the Malesheve quarry in Kosovo, which Fox Marble has developed since 2015. Since early 2016, Fox Marble has been extracting and selling marble found at Malesheve and has extracted 15,000 tonnes to-date.
Since entering the deal - for which it paid no consideration - Fox Marble has made no royalty payments to Green Power, but this was not expected to continue.
"With increasing production and expected sales of the materials it is anticipated that royalty payments over the remaining period of the agreement are expected to be paid and as such the board believes that it is in the best interest of the company to control the asset," said Fox Marble.
Fox Marble has issued 13.0 million new shares to Green Power at a price of 7.69p per share, equating to GBP1.0 million.
In 2018, Fox Marble entered hire purchase agreements with Scope, also in Kosovo, to acquire and install a new machine in Fox Marble's factory. The consideration of GBP300,000 for Scope - to be satisfied through the issue of 3.0 million shares at 10p each - is less than the value of future payments due under the hire purchase agreements. Fox Marble will acquire the hire purchase agreements as part of the Scope acquisition.
Fox Marble Chief Executive Chris Gilbert said: "The opportunity to acquire the Malesheve quarry in Kosovo will benefit the company and its shareholders going forward not only with respect to the elimination of the royalty costs, but also in benefiting from the underlying value of the quarry itself. I anticipate this value increasing as we continue to drive production rates in the quarry to satisfy the demand we have generated around the world."
Gilbert added: "The acquisition of Scope reduces the company's monthly outgoings at the factory. We look forward to updating the market in due course".
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