Renaissance shareholders sign off on Yoobee sale

Wednesday 29th January 2014

Shareholdings in Renaissance Corp have given the green light to sell its Yoobee School of Design, leaving an ailing retail unit on the company's hands.

At a special meeting in Auckland today, investors approved the sale of Yoobee to Academic Colleges Group for a net $13.3 million, with a potential earn-out of up to $1 million based on 2014 earnings. Independent adviser KordaMentha considered the deal fair to the company's shareholders.

The proceeds will go towards repaying debt, and would leave cash reserves of about $7 million, most of which will be held to distribute to shareholders on the resolution of its retail issues.

Chairman Colin Giffney told shareholders the board would prefer to fix the retail unit before returning cash from the sale.

"Yet another party is looking at acquiring the retail operations. That would be the best outcome," Giffney said. "One fallback position would be to multi-vend product. We do not believe we can turn the retail operations to profit as a public listed company."

Renaissance shares rose 0.5 cents, or 4.2 percent, to 12.5 cents in trading today, valuing the company at $5.45 million.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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