News and Events

Evolution Securities Limited ("Evolution") announces the approval at a General Meeting of a placing of £750,000 for Coolabi plc (COO.L).  The placing price was at 8p per ordinary share with the net proceeds of the Placing being used to fund the acquisition of Licensing by Design Limited, the owner of Bagpuss.

Evolution acted as Nominated Adviser and Broker on the transaction.

Coolabi is an AIM listed media group focused on the ownership, development, production and creative management of high quality children’s and family intellectual property assets and their global exploitation through licensing and merchandising and distribution.

The group owns or controls the intellectual property rights to international brands including Purple Ronnie, as well as selected rights to properties such as the Hammer House of Horror.

Coolabi is actively looking to increase the number and range of intellectual property assets that it owns, develops and manages.  Whilst a proportion of this growth will come from the development of Coolabi’s existing development slate, the majority will be as a result of the group’s acquisition strategy.

Evolution Securities Ltd. (’ESL’), one of the UK’s leading independent investment banks, is to expand its Fixed Income business following the appointment (announced today) of Guy Cornelius, formerly a Managing Director of Lehman Brothers International (’LBI’), as Head of Fixed Income. Further appointments are expected to follow in the near future.              

Announcing the move, ESL’s Chief Executive, Andrew Umbers, said - ’We believe that the current economic environment presents a significant opportunity to create a strong new Fixed Income business. Many of the traditional market players are having to reduce their commitment to the FI market due to their own financial constraints. We do not suffer from those constraints, and Guy is the ideal person to help us implement this key strategic development.’

Prior to joining LBI, where most recently he was responsible for many of the Firm’s largest clients, especially Asset Managers, Insurance Companies, Pension Funds and Hedge Funds, Mr Cornelius spent 11 years at UBS, latterly as head of Fixed Income Sales for Europe and the Middle East and served on the European Management Committee and acted as a Trustee of the UBS (UK) Pension Scheme.  He has also held senior roles in credit sales at BZW and SG Warburg.

’I am delighted to be joining ESL at such an exciting time in its development,’ he said. ’Evolution is very much a client-led business and I believe that represents a real competitive advantage in today’s difficult markets.’

Evolution Securities Limited ("Evolution") is pleased to announce its appointment as Nominated Adviser & Broker to Alpha Strategic plc with immediate effect.

Alpha Strategic plc, the specialist hedge fund management group is quoted on AIM

Evolution Securities Limited ("Evolution") is pleased to announce its appointment as Nominated Adviser & Broker to AMZ Holdings Plc with immediate effect.

AMZ Holdings Plc is the AIM listed hotel and leisure company seeking to build Taiwan’s first world class hotel and casino resort.

Evolution Securities Limited ("Evolution") is pleased to announce its appointment as Joint Broker to Concateno plc with immediate effect.

AIM quoted, Concateno plc is a leading European drugs and alcohol testing company.

Evolution Securities Limited ("Evolution") announces the approval at EGM of the £13.5m placing for Sterling Energy PLC (SEY.L). 

The placing price was at 2p per ordinary share, raising £13.5m and the placing shares are expected to commence trading on AIM on Monday 20 October 2008.

The net proceeds of the Placing will being used to fulfil a number of near term work commitments and strengthen the working capital position of the Group.

Evolution acted as Nominated Adviser and Broker on the transaction.

Evolution Securities Limited ("Evolution") announces the completion of a placing of £2m for Tasty PLC (TAST.L).  The placing price was at 30p per ordinary share and the shares were placed principally with existing shareholders and management.

Evolution acted as Nominated Adviser and Broker on the transaction.

AIM quoted Tasty PLC  is the operator of ten restaurants under the ’dim t’ format which serve dim sum and other oriental food including, Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese cuisine.

We are delighted to announce that Emma Ayton and Amrit Nahal have today joined Evolution Securities.

Their responsibilities will principally focus on distributing ’Developing Market’ product to institutions, family offices, fund of funds and private wealth management companies in the UK, Middle East and Asia.  Between them they have over 25 years’ sales experience.

Emma started her career at Williams de Broë plc in Institutional Sales before moving to Teather and Greenwood as a Closed End Fund Sales Director in 2000.  From Teather’s, Emma moved to the Investment Fund and Small Cap Sales desk at Collins Stewart where she was involved in numerous fund raisings including O Twelve Estates, ACP Capital, Macau Property Opps and Jetion Holdings.  Emma’s sector strengths are property, renewable and specialist companies listed on AIM.

Amrit joined Robert Fleming as a graduate trainee in the Investment Sales team before moving to Baring Asset Management as a Regional Sales Manager in 1997.  From here Amrit moved to FPK where she took responsibility for sales and marketing of a specialist product range, FPK Financial Funds to institutional investors and professional managers of private client portfolios in the UK and Europe.  In 2004 Amrit moved to the sales desk at Collins Stewart focusing on Investment Companies Sales. 

We are delighted to announce that Hugo Mills has today joined the Evolution Securities Research Department as a Growth Sector Analyst. 

Hugo has over 14 years experience as an analyst with SG Cowen and DLJ; as a director of Turftrax Holdings (a horse racing data business) and, most recently, he has been a Partner at First Partner, a marketing agency which focused on helping companies position, market and launch new products before it was sold to Vertical last September. Since then Hugo has been CFO at Vertical. 

Hugo qualified as an ACA with PwC in 1997; he is a keen sailor and skier and represented Great Britain in the 1994 World Championships. 

Evolution Securities Limited ("Evolution") is pleased to announce its appointment as Nominated Adviser and Broker to Equity Special Situations Limited with immediate effect.

AIM quoted Equity Special Situations Limited is a Guernsey registered investment company that was admitted to AIM in August 2004. Its investment strategy is to purchase and hold significant stakes in companies and investment funds and then to assist management in company growth. Its current focus is on the EU financial services sector.