NOT FOR RELEASE, DISTRIBUTION OR PUBLICATION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES OR TO US PERSONS
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION AS DEFINED UNDER THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION (EU) NO. 596/2014.
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18 January 2023
SME Credit Realisation Fund Limited
(the "Company")
PUBLICATION OF NAV AND RETURN OF CAPITAL
Net Asset Value ("NAV")
At 31 December 2022, the NAV attributable to the shares of SME Credit Realisation Fund Limited was £23.05 million (30 September 2022: £32.63 million). The NAV per Share as at 31 December 2022 was 116.02 pence (30 September 2022: 118.46 pence).
The total NAV return for the period 30 September 2022 to 31 December 2022 was -0.95%.
The Company has published its quarterly factsheet to the end of December 2022, containing information about the Company's financial position, performance and prospects, which is available at the Company's website at https://www.smecreditrealisation.com/documents/factsheets.
Return of capital
The Company intends to continue returning surplus cash to shareholders in a cost effective and timely manner through to full liquidation of the Group. In light of the sale of assets, surplus cash will broadly represent cash held by the Group above the requirement needed to pay accruals for ongoing costs through to final liquidation, and any cash associated with indemnities or liquidity reserves as detailed below for which the associated indemnity has amortised or for which the sufficiency of liquidity has been established.
Compulsory share redemption
The Company will return approximately £16.4 million to shareholders by way of a compulsory partial redemption of shares (the "Redemption") at 116.02 pence per share, being the NAV per share as at 31 December 2022, with payment on 6 February 2023 (the "Redemption Date"). On this basis, approximately 71.28% of each registered shareholding will be redeemed on 3 February 2023 (the "Redemption Record Date").
The distribution represents the net proceeds from the sale of loans in the quarter, less accruals for ongoing costs through to full liquidation of the Group and its subsidiaries, less c.£5.4m of cash reserves set aside related to indemnities offered to the purchasers of the loan portfolios and less a £1.2m liquidity reserve related to ensuring sufficient cash is set aside where there is uncertainty related to statutory or tax obligations that could materialise during the wind down of the Group. Should the indemnity reserve and liquidity reserve not be utilised, the related cash will be returned to shareholders as the indemnity period amortises over a period of six to twelve months and as there is more certainty regarding statutory and tax obligations.
As at today's date, the Company has 19,866,783 shares in issue. The Company holds no shares in treasury.
Fractions of shares will not be redeemed and so the number of shares to be redeemed for each shareholder will be rounded down to the nearest whole number of shares.
All shares that are redeemed will be cancelled with effect from the Redemption Record Date. Accordingly, once redeemed, shares will be incapable of transfer.
The shares will all be disabled in CREST after close of business on the Redemption Record Date and the existing ISIN number GG00BLFGSJ40 (the "Old ISIN") will expire.
The new ISIN number GG00BKQN9M74 (the "New ISIN") in respect of the remaining shares which have not been redeemed will be enabled and available for transactions from and including the following business day, 30 January 2023.
Up to and including the Redemption Record Date, shares will be traded under the Old ISIN and as such, a purchaser of such shares would have a market claim for a proportion of the redemption proceeds. CREST will automatically transform any open transactions as at the Redemption Record Date into the New ISIN.
Return of capital timetable
| Redemption Record Date and expiry of old ISIN | 27 January 2023 |
| New ISIN enabled | 30 January 2023 |
| Redemption monies paid (expected) to uncertificated holdings and certificated holdings | 6 February 2023 |
Publication of general meeting circular:
Following the previously announced sale of the Company's remaining loans, the Company intends to publish a circular in the coming weeks setting out details of, and convening a general meeting to seek shareholder approval for, the proposals to delist SME Credit Realisation Fund Limited, and the plan related to liquidation. If shareholder approval is forthcoming, SME Credit Realisation Fund Limited is expected to delist before 31 March 2023 with further information on the liquidation process to be provided.
CONTACTS
Frédéric Hervouet, Chairman
+44 (0)77 81 159 007
fred_hervouet@hotmail.com
Secretary and Administrator
Sanne Group (Guernsey) Limited
+44 (0) 1481 739810
smecreditrealisation@sannegroup.com
Corporate Broker
Numis Securities
Nathan Brown
George Shiel
+44 (0) 207 260 1000
Investor Relations
Website
The ISIN number of the Ordinary Shares is GG00BLFGSJ40, the SEDOL code is BLFGSJ4 and the TIDM is SCRF.
The LEI number of the Company is 549300ZQIYQVNIZGOW60.
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ABOUT SME Credit Realisation Fund Limited
The Company is a registered closed-ended collective investment scheme registered pursuant to the Protection of Investors (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2021, as amended and the Registered Collective Investment Scheme Rules 2020 issued by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (''GFSC'').
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IMPORTANT NOTICES
This announcement contains "forward-looking" statements, beliefs or opinions. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Company and all of which are based on its directors' current beliefs and expectations about future events. Forward-looking statements are sometimes identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes", "expects", "may", "will", "could", "should", "shall", "risk", "intends", "estimates", "aims", "plans", "predicts", "projects", "continues", "assumes", "positioned" or "anticipates" or the negative thereof, other variations thereon or comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy, plans, objectives, goals, future events, assumptions or intentions. These forward-looking statements include all matters that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements may and often do differ materially from actual results. They appear in a number of places throughout this announcement and include statements regarding the intentions, beliefs or current expectations of the Board or the Company with respect to future events and are subject to risks relating to future events and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to the Company's business concerning, amongst other things, the financial performance, liquidity, prospects, growth and strategies of the Company. These forward-looking statements and other statements contained in this announcement regarding matters that are not historical facts involve predictions. No assurance can be given that such future results will be achieved; actual events or results may differ materially as a result of risks and uncertainties facing the Company. Such risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to vary materially from the future results indicated, expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this announcement speak only as of the date of this announcement. Nothing in this announcement is, or should be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future. The Company disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained in this announcement to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which such statements are based unless required to do so by applicable law, the Prospectus Rules, the Listing Rules or the Disclosure Rules and Transparency Rules of the FCA. No statement in this announcement is intended as a forecast or profit estimate.
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