REG - Fiinu PLC - Board Changes & Change of Auditor

FiinuAnnouncement

29/12/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 1246Y  Fiinu PLC  29 December 2023

29 December 2023

 

Fiinu Plc

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

 

Board Changes & Change of Auditor

 

Fiinu, a fintech group, creator of the Plugin Overdraft®, provides an update
on its proposed Board changes and change of auditor.

 

Board changes

On 29 September 2023, the Company announced that David Hopton, Jerry Loy, Huw
Evans and Chris Sweeney would leave the Company's Board on 31 December 2023 in
the absence of any new potential funding developments. The Company can confirm
that Jerry Loy, Huw Evans and Chris Sweeney will step down from the Company's
Board with effect from 31 December 2023.  David Hopton has now agreed to
remain as Non-executive Chairman, but has agreed to defer his remuneration
subject to raising sufficient capital to re-apply for a banking licence.

 

From 1 January 2024, the Company's Board of Directors will consist of David
Hopton (Non-executive Chairman), Simon Leathers (Senior Independent
Non-executive Director) and Marko Sjoblom (Founder and Executive Director);
Marko will be appointed as Group CEO from that date with his remuneration
being deferred, subject to the Company being successful with the
re-application process.  The Company will also look to recruit further
independent non-executive directors, as appropriate, to satisfy its corporate
governance requirements.  Further announcements will be made as appropriate.

 

Change of Auditor

Mazars LLP has stepped down as auditors following the decision by the Company
to appoint an audit firm that is aligned to the current stage of the Company's
development.  F. W. Smith, Riches & Co (a member of MGI Worldwide) has
been appointed by the Board as the Group's new independent auditor with
immediate effect and will undertake the audit for the year-ending 31 December
2023. The re-appointment of F. W. Smith, Riches & Co for the financial
year ending 31 December 2024 will be subject to approval by shareholders at
the next Annual General Meeting of the Company to be held in 2024.

 

Maintaining current strategy

As previously announced, the Board's focus remains on raising the necessary
capital to support Fiinu 2 Limited's re-application for a UK banking licence
with which to launch its  Plugin Overdraft®. Given the steps taken to
preserve existing funding,  ahead of making the re-application in order to
ensure the required level of technological and regulatory readiness for the
business to re-initiate the process, a hiring process will need to be
undertaken by the Board. It is not possible at this time to quantify the time
period when this will happen.

 

Further funding requirements

The Company will continue to review all its options in respect of the
business, including further discussions to source the additional funding
required for it to re-apply to the regulators to re-commence the banking
licence application for Fiinu 2 Limited.  As part of the continued review of
its cashflow requirements, the Company will look to raise further funding to
support at least the 12-month period from the issuance of the 31 December 2023
Report and Accounts, whilst it seeks to raise the capital for the
re-application process.  As previously announced the required capital for the
re-application process is between £35m - £42m.  Further announcements in
respect of the interim funding requirements will be made in due course.

 

Future Intentions and Strategy

On 29 September 2023, the Company announced an operational and strategic
update.  The Company does not intend to change the current strategy and will
announce any further updates in due course.

Any fundamental change of strategy that involves the cessation of operations,
or the sale of all or substantially all of the Group's business and assets
(for example, the Group's technology stack and other intellectual property)
would require the approval of shareholders in a general meeting in compliance
with AIM Rule 15, but no decision to take this course of action has been made.

 

Commenting, David Hopton, Chairman of Fiinu, said:

 

"Although, in the current economic climate, the Directors believe there is a
definite need for the Plugin Overdraft® to support customers with their
credit needs, funding conditions have remained challenging for businesses at
the pre-revenue stage such as Fiinu.

 

"In such conditions, the Board have had to take some difficult decisions to
preserve cash and to give the Company every chance to source the additional
funding required for it to re-apply to the regulators to re-commence the
banking licence application for Fiinu 2 Limited. The proposed Board changes
are also being made to reduce ongoing costs to preserve cash. I would like to
put on record the Board's and my own thanks to Chris Sweeney for his tireless
efforts to get the Group to the position where, subject to funding being
raised, it can relatively quickly re-apply for a banking licence. On behalf of
all the Board, I wish Chris and all his colleagues who have left Fiinu well
for their future careers .

 

"Finally, the new Board is committed to keeping our shareholders abreast of
any important developments and I thank them for their patience as the Company
continues to engage with potential investors as it has been doing for many
months."

 

Market Abuse Regulation ('MAR') Disclosure

 

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed
inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse
Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 ('MAR'), which is part of UK law by virtue of the
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, until the release of this announcement.

 

ENDS

 

 Enquiries:

 Fiinu plc                                            via SPARK

 Dr. Marko Sjoblom

 www.fiinu.com (http://www.fiinu.com)

 SPARK Advisory Partners Limited (Nomad)              Tel: +44 (0) 203 368 3550

 Mark Brady / Adam Dawes

 SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Joint Broker)        Tel: +44 (0) 207 470 0470

 Bruce Fraser / Ezgi Senturk

 Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (Joint Broker)           Tel: +44 (0)207 886 2500

 Stephen Jones / Atholl Tweedie (Corporate Finance)

 Hugh Rich (Corporate Broking)

 

About Fiinu

 

Fiinu, founded in 2017, is a fintech group, that developed the Plugin
Overdraft® which is an unbundled overdraft solution that allows customers to
have an overdraft without changing their existing bank. The underlying bank
Independent Plugin Overdraft® technology platform is bank agnostic, that
therefore enables it to serve all other banks' customers. Open Banking allows
Fiinu's Plugin Overdraft® to attach ("plugin") to the customer's existing
primary bank account, no matter which bank they may use. Fiinu's vision is
built around Open Banking, and it believes that it increases competition and
innovation in UK banking.

 

For more information, please visit www.fiinu.com (http://www.fiinu.com)

 

 

 

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