13th Jul 2007 07:30
Oxford Catalysts Group PLC13 July 2007 13th July 2007 OXFORD CATALYSTS GROUP PLC ("Oxford Catalysts" or "the Company") Placing of New Shares Oxford Catalysts Group PLC, the leading catalyst innovator for clean fuels, ispleased to announce the conditional placing of 3,225,807 new ordinary shares of1 pence each ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of £1.24 per share (the "Placing")with various funds managed by Pioneer Investments, a trading name of the PioneerGlobal Asset Management S.P.A group of companies. The Placing has raised £4.0million for the Company. Founded in 1928, Pioneer Investments has assets under management of over €232billion (as at 31 March 2007), with a presence in more than 20 countriesworldwide. Pioneer Investments is the fund management arm of the UniCreditGroup, which is one of the largest banking and financial services organisationsin Europe, with a network of 7,200 branches in 60 countries. The proceeds of the Placing will be used to strengthen the Company's position byaccelerating and expanding development in a number of additional areas whichhave emerged since the IPO, including opportunities in Instant Steam and biogasconversion. In addition, various funds managed by Pioneer Investments have also agreed toacquire 3,397,800 existing Ordinary Shares from certain shareholders, subject tothe Placing being admitted to trading on AIM. Following the Placing and the acquisition of existing Ordinary Shares, variousfunds managed by Pioneer Investments will have a disclosable holding of6,623,607 Ordinary Shares, representing 16.33% of the issued share capital ofthe Company as enlarged by the Placing. Roy Lipski, Chief Executive of Oxford Catalysts said: "I am pleased to welcome Pioneer Investments to the share register, having firstbeen approached by them earlier this year. We are grateful for their support andthe confidence that they have shown in our technologies and commercialisationprogress. "We are raising new funds in response to a large order from Pioneer, which willadd to our strong shareholder base, reinforce the growing status of OxfordCatalysts in the clean fuels market, and place us in a strong position toexploit the wealth of opportunities now available to us." Each new Ordinary Share will rank pari-passu with all existing Ordinary Shares.Following this issue of equity, there will be 40,566,990 Ordinary Shares inissue. Application has been made for the new Ordinary Shares to be admitted totrading on AIM; it is expected that such admission will be effective as at 8 a.m. on 18th July 2007. - Ends - For further information, please contact: Roy Lipski, CEO, Oxford Catalysts 01235 841 700Jonathan Marren / Gordon Suggett, KBC Peel Hunt 020 7418 8900Jonathon Brill / Billy Clegg, Financial Dynamics 020 7831 3113 Notes to Editors Oxford Catalysts Group PLC, the leading catalyst innovator for clean fuels,designs and develops specialty catalysts for the generation of clean fuels fromboth conventional fossil fuels and certain renewable sources such as biomass.Its patent-pending technology is the result of almost 20 years of research atthe University of Oxford's prestigious Wolfson Catalysis Centre, headed byProfessor Malcolm Green, one of the world's most respected inorganic chemists.Oxford Catalysts was founded by Professor Green and Dr Xiao in October 2004 andwas admitted to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange on 26thApril 2006, having raised £15m before expenses from a solid base ofinstitutional investors. Oxford Catalysts' strategy is to license its catalysts for commercialapplication by entering into co-development partnerships with leadingmanufacturers, producers and suppliers in the petroleum, petrochemicals, fuelcells, biogas, steam applications and catalysis markets. Oxford Catalysts has two key platform technologies. The first is for a novelclass of catalysts made from metal carbides which, for certain reactions, canmatch or exceed the benefits of traditional precious metal catalysts at a lowercost. Applications of these metal-carbide catalysts include the removal ofsulphur from crude oil fractions (known as hydro-desulphurisation or HDS), theconversion of natural gas or coal into virtually sulphur-free liquid fuels viathe Fischer-Tropsch reaction (known as the GTL and CTL processes respectively),and the transformation of biogas (waste methane) into syngas - the buildingblock of liquid fuels. The second platform relates to chemical reactions involving a liquid fuelcontaining an alcohol (such as methanol), hydrogen peroxide and water. Thecompany's novel catalyst can be used to release hydrogen gas from this liquidfuel, instantaneously starting from room temperature. This groundbreakinghydrogen-on-demand technology has the potential to significantly accelerate thecommercial adoption of fuel cells in the portable and other mobile markets, byproviding the much needed source of cheap, safe transportable hydrogen. Another of the company's catalysts can be used to produce superheated steam(800c+) from the above fuel, instantaneously starting from room temperature.Such portable high-temperature steam could have important applications in abroad range of markets, from cleaning and disinfecting, to motive power andelectricity generation. www.oxfordcatalysts.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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