Captive Bank Update: Quadrivio Group named

22 December 2020

Supply@ME Capital plc

(The "Company" or "SYME")

Captive Bank update: Quadrivio Group named

Supply@ME Capital plc, the innovative fintech platform which provides the Inventory Monetisation^© service to manufacturing and trading companies, is pleased to provide the following update on its Captive Bank Inventory funding project.

The SYME platform aligns Client companies (manufacturing and trading companies) seeking to monetise part of their inventory for cash, with Inventory funders (banks, financial institutions and investment funds).  The Inventory funders invest through the SYME platform into portfolios of inventory assets through Securitisation Vehicles.

The Company announced on 21 September, 2020 that it had entered into a strategic agreement with a leading European Alternative Investment Firm ("Financial Partner") and SYME's shareholders, 1AF2 S.r.l. and The AvantGarde Group S.p.A. ("Co-investors") to acquire a bank in Europe.  Following its acquisition, the Bank will remain independent of SYME, being owned by the Financial Partner (who has committed to recapitalise it) and the Co-investors.  SYME will not be a shareholder and has no costs associated with the transaction.  It will, however, be the main commercial beneficiary of the acquisition which will provide funding through the Platform, via a novel "banking as a service" model.

The Trading Update on 30 November 2020 stated that the parties' objective is to complete the acquisition and the authorisation processes regarding the banking license during the first quarter of 2021.  This timetable remains on track.

The Company also stated that it would provide details of the Financial Partner and its market position, once the acquisition was sufficiently advanced.  The Company is now therefore pleased to announce that the Financial Partner is Quadrivio Group ("Quadrivio").

Quadrivio is an alternative investment firm with a focus on Private Equity, Private Debt and Managed Accounts.  The Firm has cumulatively raised and managed more than €2 billion from both Italian and international institutional investors. 

The Quadrivio fund "Industry 4.0"[1] will invest in and capitalise the Captive Bank.  

The Captive Bank's objective is to be a cornerstone investor in SYME's wider Inventory funding programmes working alongside all of Supply@Me's Inventory funding partners. In this regard, an update on the Company's first securitisation issuance is expected before the year-end.

Alessandro Zamboni, CEO commented "I'm very excited to finally disclose to our shareholders this strategic alliance; Quadrivio Group is the right Financial Partner for this highly innovative banking project. Leveraging the vast client network that the Industry 4.0 fund has internationally, the impact of the Captive Bank is expected to be transformational for Supply@ME and its access to Inventory funding capital."

Notes

Supply@ME enables businesses to generate cashflow, without incurring debt, by monetising their existing stock.  Before a business has found an end-customer for its inventory, the Supply@ME platform enables them to sell ("monetise") their stock and receive cash immediately to boost their working capital. The Supply@ME service enables strong companies to improve their working capital cycle.  SYME does not monetise inventory for companies in financial difficulty or with inventory that they are struggling to sell.

Contacts

Alessandro Zamboni, CEO, Supply@ME Capital plc, [email protected]

Paul Vann, Walbrook PR Limited, +44 (0)20 7933 8780;  [email protected]

Brian Norris, Cicero/AMO, +44 (0)20 7947 5317