Bank Loan, Trading Update & Notice of Results

Dillistone Group Plc

 ("Dillistone", the "Company" or the "Group")

Bank Loan, Trading Update

& Notice of Results

Bank Loan:

On 16 April 2020, the Company announced that it was seeking a loan under the UK Government's Business Interruption Loan scheme.  It is pleased to now announce that its application has been successful and yesterday it entered into an agreement to secure a £1.5m loan ("BIL Loan") repayable over 6 years at an interest rate of 3.99% over base.  Interest is waived in the first twelve months and monthly repayments commence in July 2021.  The BIL Loan can be repaid early without penalty. 

The BIL Loan will be used for working capital purposes, including development of existing and new products.

It is a condition of the BIL Loan that, without bank consent, none of the £400,000 8.15% convertible loan notes ("Loan Notes") issued on 28 September 2017 can be repaid until the BIL Loan has been repaid in full.  Accordingly, the Directors, who hold £375,750 of the Loan Notes, have signed an agreement to postpone repayment of the Loan Notes until the BIL Loan has been repaid. Quarterly interest payments will however continue to be made on the Loan Notes until repayment.

The amendment to the Loan Note terms constitutes a related party transaction under AIM Rule 13.  There being no Directors not interested in the Loan Notes, the Company's Nominated Adviser, WH Ireland Limited, considers that the terms of the amendment to the Loan Note terms are fair and reasonable insofar as the Company's shareholders are concerned.

Trading Update:

The Group was trading ahead of internal targets for 2020 prior to the impact of Covid-19 and swift action by management has helped mitigate some of the impact of the pandemic.

The Board has undertaken a series of stress testing models for the business and now believes that the range of likely outcomes for the current financial year has significantly improved since the trading update on 16 April 2020.  It remains too early to quantify the impact of the pandemic over the full year however the most likely outcome for H1 will be a small loss.

CEO of Dillistone, Jason Starr, commented:

"The successful application for the BIL loan provides working capital for the business without recourse to shareholders and allows us to continue to deliver excellent service to our clients while ensuring continued investment in our current and future product range."

Notice of Results:

The Group is working with its auditors and expects to announce its final results for the period ended 31 December 2019 later in June 2020. 

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.

Enquiries:

Notes to Editors:

Dillistone Group Plc (www.dillistonegroup.com) is a leader in the supply and support of software and services to the recruitment industry. Dillistone operates through the Ikiru People brand (www.IkiruPeople.com).

The Group develops, markets and supports the FileFinder, Infinity, Midoffice, ISV and GatedTalent products.

Dillistone was admitted to AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange plc, in June 2006.  The Group employs around 100 people globally with offices in Basingstoke, Southampton, New Jersey and Sydney.

Recently published content from across the Group includes:

Recruitment Software in Australia:  https://www.voyagersoftware.com/au/recruitment-software-in-australia-what-is-the-best-recruitment-software-for-agencies/

GatedTalent offers 6 months free access to retained executive search firms : https://www.talentis.global/insights/retained-search-firms-access-gatedtalent-for-free/

How to be headhunted:  https://www.talentis.global/insights/headhunters-find-a-job/

Temporary Recruitment Software:  https://www.voyagersoftware.com/temporary-recruitment-agency-software/

Voyager Software Australia: https://www.voyagersoftware.com/au/

Talentis:  https://www.TalentIs.Global