Polemos further strengthens its board experience as the hunt for acquisition continues!
Cash shell Polemos (LSE:PLMO) has appointed small cap financier John Treacy as a non-executive director, further enhancing its board experience as it continues to search for acquisition opportunities.
Treacy has a lot of experience in working with growing companies, having practised corporate finance in the advisory teams of several prominent UK brokerages. In these roles, he acted as an adviser to numerous AIM companies and advised on multiple IPOs, acquisitions debt restructurings, and placing. Following Treacy’s appointment, Polemos’s current non-executive directors Spencer Wilson and Daniel Maling will both step down from its board.
Treacy’s addition to Polemos’s board follows the appointment of Dr Nigel Burton as chairman last week. Burton is currently chief executive of Nu-Oil and Gas (LSE:NUOG) and a non-executive director of Strat Aero (LSE:AERO). Until March, he was also a non-executive director of AIM-listed Management Resource Solutions (LSE:MRS).
Burton has over 25 years of experience in operational and financial management, debt and equity financing, acquisition and integration, disposals, IPOs and trade sales. Following over 14 years as a city investment banker, Burton has spent 15 years as CFO of several private and public companies. These include Navig8 Product Tankers, PetroSaudi Oil Services, Advanced Power, and Granby Oil and Gas.
The appointment of Treacy and Burton to gives Polemos a great deal of experience in managing growing companies as it looks to make its first acquisition. Polemos has been on the search for a new acquisition opportunity since its agreement to acquire 100pc of the issued share capital of US cybersecurity organisation SecurLinx fell through in March.
As a result of the deal falling through, the firm was declared a cash shell under AIM rules, which means it must acquire within six months or risk being re-admitted to trading on AIM as an investing company. If it were re-admitted, it would have to raise at least £6m in cash via an equity fundraising or risk facing suspension and ultimately cancellation from AIM.
Today also saw Polemos announce the outcome of its most recent general meeting. The meeting saw investors approve a £140,000 open offer and a 1 for 100 consolidations of Polemos’s shares. However, they rejected proposals to grant directors the ability to allot shares concerning open offer and placing warrants. As a result, Polemos will now write to shareholders who wished to take part in the open offer to see if they would still like to do so without the anticipated open offer warrants attached.
Separately, the firm also announced that rather than allocating any shares under the excess application facility, it plans to raise £280,000 by placing shares at 1.1p each on a consolidation basis. This price represents a 10pc premium to that available under the excess application facility, making it less dilutive for shareholders.
Following today’s news, Burton said: ‘I would like to thank Hamish, Dan and Spencer for their contributions to the company and for working to enable the open offer to proceed. I am particularly pleased that we have been able to agree on a placing at a higher price than the open offer. I look forward to working with the company’s advisers and brokers to identify a suitable acquisition or acquisitions which constitute a reverse takeover under AIM Rule 14.’
