Funding Circle
Holdings plc
Share Repurchase
Programme
Embargoed until 7.05am, 7 March
2024
Funding Circle Holdings plc
(“Funding
Circle”) announces a
discretionary programme to purchase ordinary shares of
£0.001 each in its share capital (the “Ordinary Shares”) up to a maximum consideration of £25
million (the “Programme”). The Board of Directors considers that the
current trading price of Ordinary Shares materially undervalues
Funding Circle’s business and a share repurchase will improve
balance sheet efficiency by returning excess capital to
shareholders. It is
expected that, unless terminated earlier, the Programme will end on
the date on which the total GBP purchase price of all Ordinary
Shares purchased by Funding Circle pursuant to the Programme is
equal to, or as close as possible to, £25 million. It is intended
that any purchased Ordinary Shares will be cancelled. The Company
has appointed its broker, Numis Securities Limited
(“Deutsche Numis”), to manage the
share buyback programme to repurchase Ordinary Shares on its
behalf.
Any purchases of Ordinary Shares
by Funding Circle in relation to the Programme will be carried out
on the London Stock Exchange in compliance with the relevant
conditions for trading, restrictions regarding time and volume,
disclosure and reporting obligations, and price conditions. The
Programme will be carried out in accordance with the parameters
prescribed by the Market Abuse Regulation 596/2014 (as it forms
part of UK law pursuant to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act
2018) and Chapter 12 of the Financial Conduct Authority’s Listing
Rules using the average daily volume of Ordinary Shares traded in
February 2024, being the month preceding the month of this
announcement. However, there may be circumstances where Funding
Circle conducts purchases up to 50% of this average daily
volume.
Subject to available distributable
reserves, an initial tranche of the Programme will be conducted by
Funding Circle in accordance with and under the terms of the
general authority granted to the Board of Directors of Funding
Circle by its shareholders at its Annual General Meeting held on 11
May 2023 (the “2023 AGM”),
which authority will expire at the end of the next Annual General
Meeting of Funding Circle in May 2024 (the “2024 AGM”). Pursuant to the 2023 AGM authority, the
maximum number of Ordinary Shares that can be bought back by
Funding Circle is 36,130,314, representing 10% of Ordinary Shares
in issue at today’s date. Following the expiry of the 2023 AGM
repurchase authority, or to the extent that Funding Circle meets
the limit of that authority prior to the 2024 AGM, Funding Circle
will seek further repurchase authority at the 2024 AGM or an
earlier General Meeting.
Contacts:
Funding Circle
Investor Relations
Tony Nicol
ir@fundingcircle.com
Joint corporate
brokers
Deutsche Numis: Stephen Westgate /
Jamie Loughborough (+44 20 7260 1000)
Investec: Bruce Garrow / Kamalini
Hull (+44 20 7597 4000)
Headland Consultancy
Mike Smith / Stephen Malthouse
(+44 20 3805 4822)
About Funding
Circle:
Funding Circle (LSE: FCH) is the
UK’s leading SME lending platform. Its mission is to build the
place where small businesses get the funding they need to
win.
Funding Circle enables small
businesses to access funding – offering an unrivalled customer
experience powered by data and technology.
For institutional investors,
Funding Circle provides access to an alternative asset class in an
underserved market, with robust and attractive returns.
Globally, Funding Circle has
extended more than £16bn in credit to c.150,000
businesses.