PCG Entertainment Plc (LON:PCGE) saw its shares shed a quarter of their value today after it revealed it has axed its chief executive, Nick Bryant, closed its London office, and raised another £350,000 for working capital though a discounted placing.
In a brief addition to its placing statement this morning, PCGE said that it yesterday served notice of termination on Electric Warrior Limited, which is the consultancy company providing Bryant's services to the company.
The AIM-listed group added that under a power of attorney granted via the consultancy agreement it can remove Bryant as a director of any group companies.
In a later statement clarifying the management situation, PCGE said that, in the immediate near term, the group’s chairman Richard Poulden and director Michael Mainelli will assume overall responsibilities for operations and finance.
It added that Alan Gravett continues in the role of director and company secretary of PCGE and COO of PCG Software Services which holds the group's gaming licence.
Poulden said "Jack Sun, PCGE's COO in Asia, will continue to run the operations in China as he has done since the beginning of 2016.
“Since the only current operations of the Company are in Asia this means that management on the ground remains unchanged.”
PGCE also announced that its London office has been closed, adding that “there will be a continuing focus on keeping overheads low and conservation of cash.”
Placing again ...
The Asia-Pacific online gaming and media company this morning said its broker, Beaufort Securities had placed 250 mln new ordinary shares in the company a price of 0.14p each.
The firm said the proceeds of the placing will be used for general working capital purposes.
In late afternoon trading, PCGE shares were down 25%, or 0.0525p at 0.1525p.
The latest cash-call comes less than a month after PCGE raised £750,000 through another discounted placing which took advantage of a spike in its share price following the clearance of a stock overhang.
READ: PCGE raises an extra £750,000 …
WATCH: PCGE boss “very pleased” to have subsidiary sale behind them …
On February 22, the firm said Beaufort had placed around 535.714 mln new ordinary shares at a price of 0.14p each, with the proceeds again to be used for general working capital purposes.
That placing came a day after the firm revealed that a stock overhang created by its decision to draw a line under its ill-fated purchase of Center Point Development Corp (CPDC) was finally cleared with two tranches of share sales by Beaufort which gave PCGE net proceeds of approximately £0.42mln.
Beaufort sold around 402.589 mln ordinary shares on behalf of the CPDC purchasers, equivalent to 30.06% of the AIM-listed firm’s share capital.
The company revealed it had opted to sell the CPDC subsidiary on January 11 after a dispute between the unit’s vendors and its major supplier.
The company sold CPDC to a consortium of investors, some of whom are existing shareholders of PCG, while others are previous owners of the company.
PCG purchased CPDC in August 2015, shelling out 114.8mln shares plus US$410,000.
-- Adds clarification on management change; updates share price --