6pm Holdings plc, the parent of Naxxar-based IT solutions company 6pm Ltd and its UK sister 6pm Management Consultancy (UK), is to launch a £2.7 million rights issue on April 11. The fresh capital will contribute to speeding up the group’s growth.
The company yesterday published a prospectus dated March 28 detailing the offer to shareholders to subscribe to 10,788,000 new ordinary shares of a nominal value of £0.20. Shareholders are being offered 1.4384 new shares for every existing ordinary share at an offer price of £0.25.
The rights issue is underwritten by Mediterranean Bank.
Founder and newly appointed chief executive Ivan Bartolo said he was “committed to seeing the 6pm Group grow organically and through mergers and acquisitions.”
The prospectus states the group is actively seeking further acquisitions following the rights issues to accelerate growth.
Last December, it acquired a 70 per cent stake in software company Softweb, the solutions provider for the accounting, insurance, shipping and HR sectors, giving it access to more than 180 clients locally and a new suite of products.
In February, 6pm entered into an agreement to wholly acquire IT infrastructure companies Compunet Operations Ltd and Compunet Agencies Ltd, which it intends to finalise by the end of April.
According to the prospectus, the £2,597,000 gross proceeds from the rights issue will go towards settling the €1 million acquisition of the Compunet companies and the £472,000 existing bank loan with Banif Bank. The remainder, of which £425,000 will be placed in reserve, has been earmarked for working capital purposes.
In an interview with The Sunday Times in December, Mr Bartolo had described how 6pm also planned an industry consolidation programme that would involve around 10 firms this year. He said the initiative was part of a wider, three-year plan that would see the firm strengthen its offering in the UK, Malta and new markets by 2013.
6 pm, which listed in 2007 – the first Maltese ICT company to do so – reports in sterling as most of its trade was traditionally carried out in the UK. Only last month it launched a new HR Vision product for the UK’s National Health Service, a long-term client.
The company only began to target Malta in November 2009 to generate sales in euro and to tap the potential of the local market, which Mr Bartolo had admitted, the company had underestimated.
The rights issue will be open to eligible shareholders from April 11 to 29.
An application has been filed with the Malta Stock Exchange for the new ordinary shares to be admitted to the Official List. The shares are expected to be listed on May 16 with trading in them expected to begin the next day.