17 May 2024
Orchard Funding Group
PLC
Update on the Review of the
Capital Allocation Policy and the Continued Admission to Trading on
AIM
("the
Review")
Orchard Funding Group PLC
("Orchard", the
"Group" or "Company"), the finance group which
specialises in insurance premium finance and the professions
funding market, provides the following update on the Review having
engaged with its key institutional shareholders.
The Board is currently of the view
that the benefits of maintaining the
Company's admission to AIM ("Admission") are outweighed by the
following factors:
1. the legal and regulatory requirements and associated costs of
Admission;
2. the Company's inability to attract sufficient interest from
institutional and other investors, in light of the material
discount of the current market price of its shares to Net Asset
Value; and
3. the low levels of liquidity in trading of the Company's
ordinary shares.
The Board believes it is in the
Company's best interests to cease payment of dividends for the
current financial year.
The capital retained can be used to
make, if appropriate, an acceptable tender offer to shareholders in
the future and will be for the benefit of the business enabling
management the strategic flexibility, when appropriate, to deploy
funds to support the lending of the business.
For further information, please
contact:
Orchard Funding Group PLC
+44 (0)1582 346 248
Ravi Takhar, Chief Executive
Officer
Liberum (Nomad and
Broker)
+44 (0)20 3100 2222
Investment banking
Edward Mansfield
For Investor Relations please go
to: www.orchardfundinggroupplc.com
The information contained within
this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside
information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU)
No. 596/2014 as amended by The Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit)
Regulations 2019. Upon the publication of this announcement via the
Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now
considered to be in the public domain.