THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR
THE PURPOSES OF ARTICLE 7 OF EU REGULATION 596/2014 (WHICH FORMS
PART OF DOMESTIC UK LAW PURSUANT TO THE EUROPEAN UNION (WITHDRAWAL)
ACT 2018). UPON THE PUBLICATION OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT THIS INSIDE
INFORMATION IS NOW CONSIDERED TO BE WITHIN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.
9 August 2024
Tern Plc
("Tern" or the
"Company")
Partial sale of Device Authority holding
Tern Plc (AIM:TERN), the investment company
specialising in supporting high growth, early-stage, disruptive
Internet of Things ("IoT") technology businesses, announces that it
has sold part of its shareholding in Device Authority Limited
("Device Authority") for a total cash consideration of £233,000. As
a consequence, Tern's holding in Device Authority has reduced from
31.7% to 30.0% (before any dilution on the exercise of share
options and the expected closing of Tranche Two ("Tranche Two") of
the Device Authority Fundraising announced on 27 December
2023).
This sale of equity in Device Authority equated to
approximately 5.3% of Tern's holding in Device Authority and has
been undertaken at the same price as the Device Authority
Fundraising announced by the Company on 27 December 2023 (the
"Device Authority Fundraising Issue Price"). The buyer of Tern's
equity in Device Authority is an independent family office who are
not currently a shareholder in Device Authority and not related to
Tern. The proceeds of this disposal will be used to invest further
in one or more of Tern's portfolio companies and for general
corporate purposes.
Tern's reduced holding of 30.0% in Device Authority
(before any dilution on exercise of share options and the expected
closing of Tranche Two) has an unaudited book valuation of
approximately US$5.4 million (approximately £4.2 million) at the
valuation implied by the Device Authority Fundraising Issue
Price.
The remaining Tranche Two of the Device Authority
Fundraising of US$3.3 million, by Ten Eleven Ventures remains, as
previously announced, to be completed on or prior to 30 September
2024. On completion of Tranche Two, by Ten Eleven Ventures, Tern
will hold 25.3% of Device Authority's equity (before any dilution
on exercise of share options), which would be valued at
approximately US$5.4 million (approximately £4.2 million) at the
valuation implied by the Device Authority Fundraising Issue
Price.
Unless otherwise stated, defined terms should be
given the meaning given to them in the Company's announcement made
on 27 December 2023.
Commenting Ian
Ritchie, Chairman of Tern, said: "Following the failure to pass the resolution
required to issue new ordinary shares disapplying statutory
pre-emption rights at the recent Annual General Meeting, the Tern
board has been investigating ways to appropriately raise funds to
protect Tern's position in, and progress, Tern's portfolio
companies, whilst also providing Tern with funding as an AIM
company. The sale of a modest proportion of our holding in Device
Authority, at no discount to the value that Device Authority raised
funds in December 2023, is, I believe, appropriate to meet the
Company's immediate requirements. We will continue to explore the
best way to maximise shareholder value and I look forward to
providing updates on our portfolio companies in due
course."
Further information on Device Authority
Device Authority is a global leader in Identity and
Access Management ("IAM") for the IoT; focused on the automotive,
medical device ("IoMT") and industrial ("IIoT") sectors. Device
Authority's KeyScaler™ platform provides zero touch provisioning
and complete automated lifecycle management for securing IoT
devices and data at scale, with frictionless deployment across
device provisioning, authentication, credential management, policy
based end-to-end data security/encryption and secure OTA (over the
air) and HSM (hardware security module) updates.
Based on Device Authority's latest statutory accounts
for the year ended 31 December 2023, as at that date it had net
assets of £11,024,568 and incurred a profit for the year of
£4,303,751. Given the statutory nature of these figures Tern does
not consider this profit to be representative of the current
business and trading performance of Device Authority.
Enquiries
Tern
Plc
Ian Ritchie (Chairman)
|
via IFC Advisory
|
Allenby Capital Limited
(Nominated Adviser and
Broker)
Alex Brearley / Dan Dearden-Williams
(Corporate Finance)
Kelly Gardiner / Guy McDougall (Sales
and Corporate Broking)
|
Tel: 0203 328 5656
|
IFC
Advisory
(Financial PR and IR)
Tim Metcalfe
Graham Herring
Florence Chandler
|
Tel: 0203 934 6630
|