Insider Information pursuant to Article 17 of the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR)
October 6, 2020, Karlsruhe (Germany) – asknet Solutions AG (Ticker symbol: ASKN, ISIN: DE000A2E3707, WKN: A2E370) has placed a bond with an aggregate par value of EUR 9.0 million and an interest rate of 6.0% with semi-annual interest payments and a three-year term (ISIN: DE000A3H2VS8, WKN: A3H2VS). Of this nominal amount, EUR 8.0 million is attributable to the bondholders of the EUR 8.0 million 10.0% interest bond (ISIN: DE000A2YN140, WKN: A2YN14) placed by the company in April 2020 and maturing in April 2021, who have made full use of a corresponding exchange offer. The remaining EUR 1.0 million of the nominal amount were placed with institutional investors in a private placement. The proceeds of the issue can be used without restrictions for corporate purposes and include the financing of capital expenditures specifically related to the Academics business unit. A stock exchange listing for the new bond is currently not planned. The annual interest cost of the bonds outstanding had been reduced from EUR 0.80 million to EUR 0.54 million and all of the asknet Solutions AG bonds are now maturing in 2023 instead of 2021.
Following the placement of the original EUR 8 million bond, the capital increase and the very profitable sale of a Swiss-French subsidiary Nexway Group AG for cash, all completed in the Q2 2020, asknet Solutions AG had raised over EUR 13 million to finance further expansion of the group with a specific focus on the global education and niche e-commerce markets. This bond refinancing announced today provides asknet Solutions AG with the necessary time and space to complete a potential significant acquisition in 2021, integrate it with the existing operations and improve its operating cash flows to achieve bond repayment in the fall of 2023.
asknet Solutions AG is going to publish its 1H 2020 financial results on the 28th of October 2020 and will release the strategic guidelines for its acquisition strategy at the same time.
Contact
Magda Gajny
+49(0)721/96458-6116
Email: investors@asknet.com
