Further to the Company’s announcement on 24 August 2020, the Board of Vela is pleased to announce the completion of the Proposals.
The suspension of the Company’s ordinary shares from trading on AIM was lifted at 7.30 a.m. today and the Bond Conversion Shares, Placing Shares, Fee Shares, Broker Shares and New Ordinary Shares were admitted to trading at 8.00 a.m. today (“Admission”).
Board Changes
Further to the Company’s announcement on 31 July 2020, Antony Laiker has now stepped down as a director of the Company and James Normand has been appointed as an Executive Director of the Company, with immediate effect. The Company also intends to appoint a further director to the Board of Vela by 31 December 2020.
Brent Fitzpatrick, Chairman of Vela, commented: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank Antony for his hard work and contribution to the Company over the years, and wish him well with his future endeavours.”
Grant of Options
In conjunction with his appointment, James Normand has been granted 180,000,000 options to subscribe for ordinary shares of 0.01p each (“Ordinary Shares”) in the Company equivalent to 2.51 per cent. of the issued share capital of the Company as at today’s date. The options have an exercise price of 0.024p, being the Placing Price, and are exercisable for a period of ten years from the date of the grant. Half the options become exercisable 12 months after grant, subject to the Company’s closing mid-market share price being at least 0.048p per Ordinary Share for 30 consecutive business days, and the remaining half become exercisable 24 months after grant, subject to the Company’s closing mid-market share price being at least 0.072p per Ordinary Share for 30 consecutive business days.
In addition, Brent Fitzpatrick, Non-Executive Chairman of the Company, has today been granted 90,000,000 options to subscribe for Ordinary Shares in the Company, equivalent to 1.25 per cent. of the issued share capital of the Company as at today’s date. The options have an exercise price of 0.024p, being the Placing Price, and are exercisable for a period of ten years from the date of the grant. Half the options become exercisable 12 months after grant, subject to the Company’s closing mid-market share price being at least 0.048p per Ordinary Share for 30 consecutive business days, and the remaining half become exercisable 24 months after grant, subject to the Company’s closing mid-market share price being at least 0.072p per Ordinary Share for 30 consecutive business days. Following today’s grant of options, Brent Fitzpatrick now holds a total of 104,562,427 share options equivalent to 1.46 per cent. of the issued share capital of the Company as at today’s date.
Following the grant of the options detailed above and the issuance of the Placing Warrants and the Broker Warrants the Company has a total of 299,124,854 share options outstanding representing approximately 4.17% of the Company’s issued share capital and a total of 4,481,822,692 warrants outstanding representing approximately 62.49% of the Company’s issued share capital.
Total Voting Rights
Following Admission, the Company has 7,171,860,577 ordinary shares of 0.01p each in issue. The Company does not hold any Ordinary Shares in treasury and therefore, the total number of Ordinary Shares and voting rights in the Company is 7,171,860,577. This figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA’s Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.
Defined terms used in this announcement shall have the same meaning as set out in Company’s announcement on 31 July 2020.
