meeting on September 23, 2019, we agreed to repurchase 4,864,656 ordinary shares from Highbridge Tactical Credit Master Fund L.P., Highbridge SCF Special Situations SPV, L.P. and Nineteen77 Global Multi Strategy Alpha Master Limited. In exchange for the ordinary shares, these institutions were issued an equivalent number of zero cost warrants. Each warrant entitles the holder to subscribe for one ordinary share at zero cost. As of August 5, 2021, these zero cost warrants have all been exercised in exchange for ordinary shares.
At the general meeting of the Company held on March 2, 2022, the Company’s shareholders approved the form of share repurchase contracts and counterparties for the Company to purchase its own shares. Following such approval, our board of directors may approve the repurchase of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares represented by ADSs) as they may determine from time to time. This approval is valid for five years from the date of the general meeting.
A share buy-back by a company of its shares will give rise to UK stamp duty reserve tax and stamp duty at the rate of 0.5% of the amount or value of the consideration payable by the company (rounded up to the next £5.00), and such stamp duty reserve tax or stamp duty will be paid by the company. The charge to stamp duty reserve tax will be cancelled or, if already paid, repaid (generally with interest), where a transfer instrument for stamp duty purposes has been duly stamped within six years of the charge arising (either by paying the stamp duty or by claiming an appropriate relief) or if the instrument is otherwise exempt from stamp duty.
Distributions and Dividends
Under the Companies Act, before a company can lawfully make a distribution or dividend, it must ensure that it has sufficient distributable reserves (on a non-consolidated basis). A company’s profits available for the purpose of making a distribution are its accumulated, realized profits, so far as not previously utilized by distribution or capitalization, less its accumulated, realized losses, so far as not previously written off in a reduction or reorganization of capital. The requirement to have sufficient distributable reserves before a distribution or dividend can be paid applies to us and to each of our subsidiaries that has been incorporated under English law.
It is not sufficient that we have distributable profits available for the purpose of making a distribution. As a public company, an additional capital maintenance requirement is imposed on us to ensure that the net worth of the company is at least equal to the amount of its capital. A public company can only make a distribution:
• | if, at the time that the distribution is made, the amount of its net assets (that is, the aggregate of the company’s assets less the aggregate of its liabilities) is no less than the aggregate of its called up share capital and undistributable reserves; and |
• | if, and to the extent that, the distribution itself, at the time that it is made, does not reduce the amount of the net assets to less than that total. |
City Code on Takeovers and Mergers
Following the delisting of our ordinary shares from admission to trading on the AIM market operated by the London Stock Exchange which became effective on January 11, 2022 (the “AIM Delisting”), as the Company remains a public limited company incorporated in England and Wales but its securities are no longer admitted to trading on a regulated market or multilateral trading facility in the United Kingdom (or a stock exchange in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man), the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (the “City Code”) will only apply to the Company if it is considered by the UK Panel on Takeovers and Mergers (the “Panel”) to have its place of central management and control in the United Kingdom (or the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man). The way in which the test for central management and control is applied for the purposes of the City Code may be different from the way in which it is applied by the United Kingdom tax authorities, HMRC. Under the City Code, the Panel looks to where the majority of the directors of the Company are resident, amongst other factors, for the purposes of determining where the Company has its place of central management and control.
None of the Directors is resident in the United Kingdom. Accordingly, the Panel has confirmed to the Company that, following the AIM Delisting, the City Code does not apply to the Company, and the Company and its shareholders therefore do not have the benefit of the protections the City Code affords, including, but not limited to, the requirement that a person (together with persons acting in concert with that person) who acquires an interest in ordinary shares carrying 30% or more of the voting rights in the Company or who increases an existing interest of not less than 30% but not more than 50% of the voting rights, must make a cash offer to all other shareholders at the highest price paid by such person (or person acting in concert with such person) in the 12 months before the offer was announced.