18/01/2007 Ad-hoc News EN
Christian Steiner
Christian Steiner
SHS VIVEON AG: Convertible bond placed, consolidation process concluded
SHS VIVEON AG / Issue of Debt
Ad hoc announcement according to § 15 WpHG transmitted by DGAP - a company
of EquityStory AG.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
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Martinsried, January 18, 2007 – SHS VIVEON AG has fully placed the
convertible bond resolved on December 20, 2006. Funds totaling EUR 4
million will accrue to the company as a result. A total of 40,000 bonds
were placed. About 30% of the bonds were issued to private investors, about
60% were issued to institutional investors. The remaining 10% were
allocated to existing investors by exercising their subscription rights.
The proceeds from the issue will be used, as planned, to compensate the
subsequent tax demands against the Spanish subsidiary SHS Polar in the
amount of around EUR 2 million. In addition, a one-off compensation payment
will be made in the amount of EUR 2.2 million to redeem a loan between SHS
Polar and IKB Deutsche Kreditbank AG in the amount of EUR 8.8 million. When
this payment is made, all obligations from the loan will have been redeemed
in full.
By concluding this transaction, the company has disposed of its existing
financial burdens and completed the consolidation of its balance sheet.
This can primarily be seen via the reduction in net debt of EUR 6.6
million.
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Information and Explaination of the Issuer to this News:
Redeeming the IKB loan and placing the convertible bond have enabled SHS
VIVEON AG to successfully conclude consolidating the company’s financing
structure, a goal it has been pursuing since 2003. The IKB loan was
originally granted in 2001 as part of a syndicated loan to finance the
acquisition of SHS Polar. Since then, servicing the loan has been a massive
burden for SHS Polar. In particular the increasing repayment installments
for the loan, which peaked at around EUR 20 million, exceeded the
subsidiary’s economic performance. As a result, there were recurrent
disruptions in the credit relationship. Given this background, the
reduction of the debt position of SHS Polar, which was urgently required,
took top priority in the past few years, and hase now been successfully
completed with the redemption of the IKB loan. The result is a significant
reduction in non-current financial debt at SHS VIVEON Group from an
original amount of around EUR 20 million to a current total of EUR 4
million. This will lead to enormous relief for the cash flows generated
especially by SHS Polar in future, which will no longer have any
non-current liabilities to banks after the redemption of the IKB loan. At
the same time, the placement of the convertible bond will finance the
subsequent tax claims against SHS Polar that also exist in the amount of
around EUR 2 million and stem from 2001 and 2002. Both measures mean that
the group has succeeded in substantially stabilizing and optimizing the
financing situation of SHS Polar and thus also of the SHS VIVEON Group. In
addition, over the past few years measures in context with the debt
reduction took up a significant amount of management capacity at both SHS
Polar and SHS VIVEON AG. The management can now once again focus fully on
implementing the group’s growth strategy.
'After the redemption of the IKB loan and the placement of the convertible
bond, SHS VIVEON Group now enjoys a very healthy ratio of net debt to
earnings strength,' commented CFO Wolfgang Brand.
In addition to stabilizing the financing situation, in 2006 SHS VIVEON AG
also laid the foundations to implement its growth strategy in the
German-speaking business. By the end of 2006, the integration and merger of
VIVEON AG, which was acquired in the spring of 2006, had mostly been
completed. This means that SHS VIVEON AG is starting 2007 with a
substantially larger range of solutions and services as well as a wider
customer base. The company’s primary goal will now be to use the existing
potential for cross selling consistently and as quickly as possible, and to
further expand the business base. This includes further expansion into the
Austrian and Swiss markets. The cash flow generated in connection with the
planned increases in sales and earnings at the SHS VIVEON Group will be
used to quickly repay the convertible bond and to finance investments in
further growth.
Martinsried-based SHS VIVEON AG is listed on the Prime Standard segment of
the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and operates subsidiaries in Spain and
Switzerland. The IT services provider focuses on offering customer
management and credit risk management solutions to companies with a broad
customer base. In 2005, the company recorded revenues of EUR 41 million.
The customers of SHS VIVEON AG include Financial Services, Crédit Agricole,
DAB Bank, Danone, E-Plus, Ingram Micro, Karstadt, O2, Orange, SüdLeasing,
Telefónica, Toyota Kreditbank, T-Mobile, T-Online and other international
companies in the automobile, information and financial services sector. For
more information, see www.SHS-VIVEON.com.
SHS VIVEON AG
Daniela Nase
Tel.: +49 – 89 – 747257-37
e-mail: Investor.Relations@SHS-VIVEON.com
cometis AG
Michael Diegelmann
Tel: +49 – 611 – 205855-15
e-mail: diegelmann@cometis.de
DGAP 18.01.2007
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Language: English
Issuer: SHS VIVEON AG
Fraunhoferstraße 12
82152 Martinsried bei München Deutschland
Phone: +49 (0)89 747-257-0
Fax: +49 (0)89 747-257-10
E-mail: investor.relations@shs-viveon.com
WWW: www.shs-viveon.com
ISIN: DE0005072409
WKN: 507240
Indices:
Listed: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr
in Berlin-Bremen, Stuttgart, München, Hamburg, Düsseldorf
End of News DGAP News-Service
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