Placing and Trading Update

Atlantis Resources Limited (AIM: ARL, “Atlantis”, or the “Company”), a recognised global leader in the tidal power sector, has raised approximately £6.5 million before expenses through the conditional placing (“Placing”) of 11,888,460 new ordinary shares (the “Placing Shares”) at a placing price of 55 pence per share.

Highlights

• Placing of approximately £6.5 million before expenses at 55 pence per share.
• Proceeds will be used to fund project development activities across the Atlantis project portfolio and working capital.

Trading Update

The Company will announce its annual results for the year to 31 December 2015 on or before 31 May 2016. 

Tim Cornelius, CEO of Atlantis, commented: 

“Through this successful placing both existing and new shareholders have demonstrated their support for Atlantis, our recent achievements and our ambitions for the future – both in the immediate and longer term.  We look forward to working with our partners to further the development of the tidal stream industry in the UK and beyond.”

 

Enquiries:

Atlantis Resources Tim Cornelius, Chief Executive Officer Simon Counsell, Chief Financial Officer	via FTI Consulting
Peel Hunt LLP (Nominated Adviser and Broker) Daniel Harris Jock Maxwell Macdonald Euan Brown	+44 (0)20 7418 8900
Macquarie Capital Europe Limited (Joint Bookrunner) Nick Stamp Fergus Marcroft	+44 (0)20 3037 2000
FTI Consulting Ben Brewerton Alex Beagley Stephanie Blott James Styles	+44 (0)20 3727 1000

Introduction

The Company has raised approximately £6.5 million (before expenses) by way of a conditional placing of 11,888,460 new ordinary shares of no par value at a price of 55 pence per share (the “Placing Price”).

The Placing Price represents a discount of approximately 20.3 per cent. to the closing mid-market share price of 69.0 pence per ordinary share on 19 April 2016 (the latest practicable date prior to the date of this announcement), and a premium of approximately 4.5 per cent. to the Company’s average volume weighted share price of 52.5 pence for the 30 trading days ended 19 April 2016 (being the last business day prior to the date of this announcement). The Placing Shares will represent approximately 11.3 per cent. of the issued share capital of the Company prior to the issue of the Placing Shares.

Background to and reasons for the Placing

In the last 12 months Atlantis has continued to build momentum, completing the acquisition of Marine Current Turbines Limited from Siemens AG in July 2015 and reaching agreement, subject to satisfaction of conditions precedent, for DEME Concessions NV and ScottishPower Renewables (UK) Limited (“SPR”) to join Atlantis as shareholders in Tidal Power Scotland Limited, the Company’s subsidiary.  The Company’s Scottish portfolio now includes, subject to completion of the SPR transaction, five project sites with an aggregate potential capacity of almost 640MW and awarded grant funding of over £40 million from the UK and Europe.  Atlantis is now focused on achieving financial close for its most developed projects, aided by its recent partnership agreement with Equitix Limited.

Phase 1A of the 398MW MeyGen project is expected to produce first power in H2 2016, paving the way for the build out of further capacity.  Phase 1B will add a further 6MW of capacity, followed by 74MW of capacity in Phase 1C bringing the aggregate installed capacity at the site to 86MW.  Grid connection agreements and consents are already in place for this build out, and Phase 1B has €17 million of grant funding attached.  The proceeds of the Placing are intended to be used to assist in bringing Phase 1B to financial close and to accelerate development of Phase 1C to achieve financial close in 2017. 

The proceeds are also intended to be applied to assist in achieving financial close for the Sound of Islay project on the west coast of Scotland.  This 10MW project has a grid agreement and consents in place, and €21 million of grant funding awarded through the European NER300 programme.

Proceeds will also be used to meet the general working capital requirements of the Atlantis group.

Details of the Placing

The Company has, conditional on admission of the Placing Shares (“Admission”), raised approximately £6.5 million before expenses by means of the Placing.

Peel Hunt LLP (“Peel Hunt”) and Macquarie Capital (Europe) Limited (“Macquarie”), as agents for the Company, have conditionally placed 11,888,460 new ordinary shares with investors at a price of 55 pence per Placing Share on the terms set out in a placing agreement entered into between the Company, Peel Hunt and Macquarie (the “Placing Agreement”).  The Placing is conditional, inter alia, upon the Placing Agreement becoming unconditional in all respects and Admission occurring on or before 25 April 2016 or such later date as is agreed in writing between the Company, Peel Hunt and Macquarie, but in any event not later than 8.00 a.m. on 6 May 2016.

The Placing Shares will, following Admission, rank pari passu with the existing issued ordinary shares and will have the right to receive all dividends and other distributions declared, made or paid in respect of the issued ordinary share capital of the Company following Admission.

Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. The Placing Shares are expected to be admitted to AIM and commence trading at 8.00 a.m. on 25 April 2016.

Trading Update

Atlantis is in the process of finalising its financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2015 and will be releasing its annual report on or before 31 May 2016.

Whilst the financial statements have not yet been signed off by the Company’s auditors, the draft financial statements show a profit for the year to 31 December 2015 of S$5.1m (£2.7m).  The profit is driven by an accounting gain on the acquisition of Marine Current Turbines Limited from Siemens AG in July 2015.

The consolidated cash position of the group at 31 December 2015 was S$25.9m (£13.6m) of which S$16.5m (£8.7m) was held by MeyGen, and S$3.1m (£1.6m) was restricted cash.

Atlantis has a number of opportunities to generate additional working capital in the event that it is required including, in particular, through syndication of equity in its project portfolio, and is highly confident that its requirements will be met from these sources.  However, in the unlikely event that none, or a limited number, of these opportunities is realised it is possible that the Company may be required to seek alternative funding which may include in due course a further equity fundraising on AIM.  Alternatively, it may need to reduce investment in elements of its business which may affect the investment case.