Placing with new strategic investor to raise AUD 12.8m (GBP 6.7m)
Change of Non-Executive Directors
· Leading electronics manufacturer V S Industry takes a 12% stake
· New shares issued at premium of 20% to market price*
22 March 2016
Seeing Machines Limited, (AIM: SEE), the AIM listed vehicle operator monitoring technology company, is pleased to announce that it has today raised AUD 12.8 million (approximately GBP 6.7 million**) from a placing with a new strategic investor, V S Industry Berhad (VSI) through its wholly owned subsidiary V S International Venture Pte. Ltd. (VSIV), a leading integrated electronics manufacturing services provider (the "Placing"), subject to admission to trading on AIM.
* A total of 129,654,000 new ordinary shares in the Company (the "Placing Shares") have been placed with VSIV, at an issue price of 5.199 pence per share, which is a premium of 20% to the Company's 30-day volume-weighted average market price ended 16 March 2016. VSIV's interest in 129,654,000 shares represents a stake of 12% in the Company's issued share capital following admission of the Placing Shares.
The investment from VSIV will provide the Company with additional working capital to enable it to fund the recently announced automotive programs and ongoing automotive product developments. On 7 March 2016 the Company announced that it had secured a follow-on order for its DMS technology from one of the world's largest automotive manufacturers, in conjunction with tier 1 automotive partner Takata. As previously announced, the Company continues to investigate the option to establish its automotive business as a separately-funded company. The Company and its advisors are advancing discussions with potential strategic investors and industry partners for this opportunity.
V S Industry Berhad is a public listed company in Malaysia and Hong Kong, with over 34 years' experience of multi-product OEM contract manufacturing and electronics manufacturing services. VSI is ranked in the world's top 50 contract manufacturers and counts among its customers or partners, Dyson, Keurig Green Mountain, Zodiac, SMART Technologies, Valeo and Fluidic Energy. The VSI group employs over 11,000 staff and in the 2015 financial year generated revenue of approximately AUD 640 million.
Seeing Machines anticipates future benefits for its range of Guardian aftermarket commercial transport products arising from VSI's extensive product engineering experience, broad manufacturing capability and from influential transport related contacts in their regions of operation.
Mr Yong Kang (YK) Ng an Executive Director of VSI, joins the board of Seeing Machines as a non-executive director and Mr David Gaul, a non-executive director of the Company since 2004, retires from the board, both with effect from 22 March 2016.
** Based on an exchange rate of AUD:GBP: 0.52766 as at 16:30 GMT on 21 March 2016.
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