New Chairman and £585,000 Equity Placing
04 March 2008
Hot Tuna (International) PLC (AIM:HTT), the lifestyle apparel brand with authentic surf heritage, announces that Mr David Lenigas has today been appointed as Non-Executive Chairman. Mr Lenigas is to replace Mr Ranjit Murugason, who having recently taken on the full time position at an international group, believes he is no longer able to devote the required time to the Chairmanship role at Hot Tuna.
Niels Juul, Chief Executive Officer, commented:
"I would like to welcome David Lenigas to his new position as Chairman of the Company. David brings a vast wealth of highly relevant experience and I am confident he will bring exceptional value to the Company as we continue to grow.
On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Ranjit for his significant contribution, advice and encouragement over the last few years. We wish him every success in the future."
The Board of Hot Tuna also advises that the Company has raised £585,000 gross (£555,000 net of expenses) by way of a Placing of 58,500,000 new ordinary shares of 1 pence each in the share capital of the Company ('Placing Shares') at 1 pence per Placing Share with certain institutions and other investors ('Placing').
Pursuant to the Placing, participants have additionally been granted one warrant to subscribe for an additional ordinary share in Hot Tuna for each two new ordinary shares subscribed for by that participant in the Placing. These warrants are exercisable at 1.5p per share for a period of five years from the date of admission of the Placing Shares to trading on AIM.
The Placing Shares will represent approximately 41.4 per cent of the Company's enlarged issued share capital and application will be made for the admission of the Placing Shares to trading on AIM. It is expected that dealings in the Placing Shares will commence at 8.00 a.m. on 11 March 2008. The total number of shares in issue following completion of the Placing will be 141,293,419.
The Placing proceeds will enable the Company to continue to provide the necessary working capital for its growing order book of surf apparel for stores in Europe, America and Australia.
Disclosure:
David Anthony Lenigas, aged 46, is a Mining Engineer and has considerable experience running public companies. Mr Lenigas is the Executive Chairman of Lonrho Plc; the Chairman of LonZim Plc, Leni Gas & Oil Plc, Templar Minerals Limited, Immersion Technologies International Plc; a non-executive director of GCM Resources Plc, River Diamonds Plc and Mediterranean Oil and Gas Plc.
Former directorships and partnerships of Mr Lenigas within the previous five years include Braemore Resources plc, Consolidated New Sage, Peninsula Minerals, Deepgreen West Virginia Inc and BDI Mining Corp.
Save as disclosed above, there are no further details required to be disclosed pursuant to schedule 2(g) of the AIM Rules.
For further information, please contact:
| Hot Tuna (International) PLC | |
| David Lenigas, Chairman | Tel: +44 (0) 7881 825378 |
| Niels Juul, CEO | Tel: +1 310 8014666 |
| niels_juul@hottunaplc.com | |
| Seymour Pierce Limited | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7107 8000 |
| Mark Percy | www.seymourpierce.com |