Novacyt S.A.: Early Settlement of Term Loan and Convertible Bond Facility Removes Long Term Debt
03 Juin 2020 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
Regulatory News:
Novacyt S.A.
("Novacyt", the "Company" or the
“Group”)
Novacyt (EURONEXT GROWTH: ALNOV; AIM: NCYT), an international
specialist in clinical diagnostics, announces it will settle all
outstanding debt obligations with Harbert European Growth Capital
(“HEGC”) and Vatel Capital SAS (“Vatel”).
Under the arrangements, Novacyt will clear its debt obligations
with HEGC and Vatel before the end of June 2020. In doing so, it
will settle a total of €7.0m of principal debt provided by the two
lenders.
The €5.0m HEGC secured term loan, announced on 6 November 2019,
has a fixed interest rate of 11% per annum and is repayable over 48
months with an initial 12-month interest only period followed by 36
equal monthly payments of interest and capital. HEGC took a first
ranking charge over the assets of the UK businesses with a pledge
over Novacyt, which will be satisfied upon full repayment of €6.1m,
including €5.0m of capital, during the month of June 2020.
In May 2018, Novacyt entered into an unsecured convertible bond
facility with Vatel for €4.0m to be repaid over three years at an
interest rate of 7.4%. Under the terms of an agreed restructure
with Vatel, announced on 6 November 2019, the interest rate was
retrospectively increased to 8.9% (effective 31 July 2019) and the
term of the loan was extended by 12 months to May 2022 to reduce
annual payments to Vatel. The bond also carries a non-conversion
premium of 0.1% when monthly repayments are made in cash.
Vatel has exercised its right to request conversion of all
outstanding debt into new ordinary shares of €1/15 each in the
Company (“Ordinary Shares”) at a fixed conversion price of €0.70
per Ordinary Share. Therefore, the remaining debt of €2,066,257 has
been converted into 2,952,681 Ordinary Shares. No future or accrued
interest is payable as a result of this conversion.
Vatel has agreed to a lock-in period for a certain number of the
Ordinary Shares, whereby 1,107,255 Ordinary Shares will not be sold
or transferred before 31 December 2021, and a further 1,033,438
Ordinary Shares will not be sold or transferred before 31 March
2021. The remaining 811,988 shares have no such restrictions.
The early settlement of the HEGC loan is being funded out of
general cash resources. As of 2 June 2020, prior to the payment to
HEGC, the Group had a net cash balance of €25m (cash as at 31
December 2019 of €1.8m).
Admission to Trading & Total Voting Rights
Application will be made for 2,952,681 new Ordinary Shares to be
admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission") and it is expected that
Admission will become effective at 8.00 a.m. on or around 9 June
2020. Admission of the new Ordinary Shares to trading on Euronext
is expected to occur on or before 9 June 2020.
Following Admission, the total number of shares in the Company
is 70,626,248. This figure may be used by shareholders as the
denominator for calculations by which they will determine if they
are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their
interest in, the Company pursuant to Article L. 233-7 of the French
Commercial Code and the Company's Articles.
Graham Mullis, Chief Executive Officer of Novacyt,
commented: “We are pleased to announce early settlement of all
of Novacyt’s outstanding debt obligations, which has been made
possible due to the Company’s strong cash generation so far in
2020. With significant order commitments and raw materials acquired
for our COVID-19 test, and expected revenues from new products, we
expect strong cash generation to continue. I would like to extend
my thanks to HEGC and Vatel for supporting Novacyt during this
time.”
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes
of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 596/2014.
- End –
About Novacyt Group The Novacyt Group is an international
diagnostics business generating an increasing portfolio of in vitro
and molecular diagnostic tests. Its core strengths lie in
diagnostics product development, commercialisation, contract design
and manufacturing. The Company's lead business units comprise of
Primerdesign and Lab21 Products, supplying an extensive range of
high-quality assays and reagents worldwide. The Group directly
serves microbiology, haematology and serology markets as do its
global partners, which include major corporates.
For more information please refer to the website:
www.novacyt.com
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Novacyt SA Graham Mullis, Chief Executive Officer Anthony
Dyer, Chief Financial Officer +44 (0)1276 600081
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Nominated Adviser and
Broker) Matthew Johnson / Charlie Bouverat (Corporate Finance)
Vadim Alexandre / Rob Rees (Corporate Broking) +44 (0)20 3470
0470
Allegra Finance (French Listing Sponsor) Yannick Petit
+33 (1) 42 22 10 10 y.petit@allegrafinance.com
FTI Consulting (International) Victoria Foster Mitchell /
Mary Whittow +44 (0)20 3727 1000
victoria.fostermitchell@fticonsulting.com /
mary.whittow@fticonsulting.com
FTI Consulting (France) Arnaud de Cheffontaines +33
(0)147 03 69 47 arnaud.decheffontaines@fticonsulting.com
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