AGM Information • Jul 26, 2023
AGM Information
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Annual General Meeting
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Dear Shareholder,
The fifth Annual General Meeting of the Company will be held on Tuesday, 19 September 2023 at 11.00 a.m. at the offices of Augmentum Fintech Management Limited, 5th floor, 4 Chiswell Street EC1Y 4UP. The Board strongly encourages shareholders to register their votes in advance of the meeting by voting online using the Registrar's portal, www.signalshares.com or, if they are not held directly, by instructing the nominee company through which the shares are held. Registering votes online does not preclude shareholders from physically attending the meeting.
The Directors consider that all the resolutions in the Notice of Annual General Meeting (the "Notice") are in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders taken as a whole and therefore unanimously recommend to shareholders that they vote in favour of each resolution, as the Directors intend to do in respect of their own holdings. We have not included paper forms of proxy to accompany the Notice. Shareholders can vote online by visiting www.signalshares.com and following instructions. If you require assistance with this or a hard copy form of proxy please contact our current registrar, Link Group, whose contact details are set out on page 5 of this document.
The Notice is set out on pages 2 to 5 of this document. Further details of each of the resolutions to be proposed at the Annual General Meeting are set out in the explanatory notes on pages 6 and 7. I also refer you to the Annual Report, which is available on the Company's website www.augmentum.vc.
Yours faithfully
Chairman Augmentum Fintech plc
Registered Office: 25 Southampton Buildings London WC2A 1AL
25 July 2023
If you are in any doubt as to what action you should take, you should consult your stockbroker, solicitor, accountant or other professional adviser authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, if you are resident in the UK, or, if not, from another appropriately independent professional adviser in your own jurisdiction.
If you have sold, transferred or otherwise disposed of all your shares in the Company please pass this circular and the accompanying Form of Proxy to the stockbroker, bank or other agent through whom you made the sale, transfer or disposal for transmission to the purchaser or transferee, except that such documents should not be sent to any jurisdiction under any circumstances where to do so might constitute a violation of local securities laws and regulations. If you have sold or transferred or otherwise disposed of only part of your holding of shares in the Company, you should retain this circular and consult the stockbroker, bank or other agent through whom you made the sale, transfer or disposal.
Notice is hereby given that the fifth Annual General Meeting of Augmentum Fintech plc will be held on Tuesday, 19 September 2023 at 11.00 a.m. for the following purposes:
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To consider and, if thought fit, pass the following resolutions of which resolutions 10 and 11 will be proposed as ordinary resolutions and resolutions 12 to 14 will be proposed as special resolutions:
changed, the number representing 20% of the issued share capital of the Company, excluding shares held in treasury, at the date of the meeting at which this resolution is proposed), at a price of at least the prevailing net asset value per ordinary share after performance fee, provided that this authority shall expire at the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting of the Company to be held in 2024 or 15 months from the date of passing this resolution, whichever is the earlier, unless previously revoked, varied or renewed by the Company in general meeting and provided that the Company shall be entitled to make, prior to the expiry of such authority, an offer or agreement which would or might require relevant securities to be allotted after such expiry and the Directors may allot relevant securities pursuant to such offer or agreement as if the authority conferred hereby had not expired.
This authority shall expire at the conclusion of the next Annual General Meeting of the Company after the passing of this resolution or 15 months from the date of passing this resolution, whichever is the earlier, unless previously revoked, varied or
renewed by the Company in general meeting and provided that the Company shall be entitled to make, prior to the expiry of such authority, an offer or agreement which would or might require equity securities to be allotted after such expiry and the Directors may allot equity securities pursuant to such offer or agreement as if the power conferred hereby had not expired.
By order of the Board
Frostrow Capital LLP Registered office: Company Secretary 25 Southampton Buildings London 25 July 2023 WC2A 1AL
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A proxy may be appointed by going to www.signalshares.com or by requesting a paper proxy from our registrars, Link Group.
Link Group Central Square 29 Wellington Street Leeds LS1 4DL United Kingdom Email: [email protected] Telephone: +44 (0)371 664 0300 Website: www.linkgroup.eu
The Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2023 will be presented to the AGM. These Financial Statements have been sent to shareholders separately from this Notice of Meeting and are also available on the Company's website, www.augmentum.vc. Shareholders will be given an opportunity at the meeting to ask questions.
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Resolutions 2 to 6 deal with the re-election of the Directors. Biographies of each of the Directors can be found on page 31 of the Annual Report.
The specific reasons why (in the Board's opinion) each Director's contribution is, and continues to be, important for the Company's long-term sustainable success are as follows:
Neil has chaired several public and private companies, including an investment trust. In his leadership of the Board, he draws on his experience of international business and a career spanning companies varying in size from start-ups to global corporations.
Karen has over 25 years of investment experience across a range of sectors and markets. She has served as a non-executive director of listed venture capital and investment trusts. She has a deep understanding of investment performance, market risk and corporate governance requirements.
David has over 40 years' experience in the City, including both public and private company investment. His first-hand knowledge enables the Board to engage authoritatively with the Portfolio Manager on their investment strategy.
Conny has been an active and high profile part of the European fintech scene for many years and has worked with a number of early stage fintech businesses.
Sir William brings extensive fintech and financial services experience and an understanding of the Company's investor base.
It is mandatory for listed companies to put their Remuneration Report to an advisory shareholder vote each year. The Directors' Remuneration Report is set out on pages 43 to 45 of the Annual Report.
Resolution 8 is for the reappointment of BDO LLP as the Company's independent auditor to hold office until the next Annual General Meeting of the Company and Resolution 9 authorises the Audit Committee to set the auditor's remuneration. Following the implementation of the 2014 Competition and Markets Authority order on Statutory Audit Services only the Audit Committee may negotiate and agree the terms of the auditor's service agreement.
Due to the nature of the portfolio there may be occasions when the performance of companies in it could give rise to significant increases in valuation whereby they encroach upon the investment policy concentration limit. In some cases these businesses, although highly valued because of their growth rates, can still have funding requirements while they prioritise growth over profitability. Depending on the composition and terms of these funding rounds, it may be in our shareholders' interest for the Company to participate in order to preserve value. When we launched the Company our investment policy allowed us to construct a portfolio with a concentration limit of 15% of NAV for individual investments save for one outlier investment that could be up to 20% of NAV. The Board would like to reintroduce this structure to provide more flexibility to optimise shareholder outcomes when circumstances such as those above arise. Given the requested increase to the single asset limit will only apply to one investment, the Board does not consider that the change will have any material impact on diversification, particularly given the spread of, currently, 25 investments across the portfolio, allowing for a portfolio which is larger and significantly more diversified than at IPO when the largest investment was permitted to be up to 20% of NAV.
A corresponding non-material change to the investment policy to clarify the definition of NAV is also being requested. These proposed changes to the investment policy are illustrated in the appendix to this notice, on pages 8 and 9.
Ordinary Resolution 11 in the Notice of Annual General Meeting will grant the authority to allot new share capital up to the equivalent of 20% of the Company's existing issued share capital on the date of the AGM. Such authority will expire on the date of the next Annual General Meeting or after a period of 15 months from the date of the passing of the resolution, whichever is earlier. This means that the authority will have to be renewed at the next Annual General Meeting unless previously renewed.
When shares are to be allotted for cash, section 551 of the Companies Act 2006 (the "Act") provides that existing shareholders have preemption rights and that the new shares must be offered first to such shareholders in proportion to their existing holding of shares. However, shareholders can, by special resolution, authorise the Directors to allot shares otherwise than by a pro rata issue to existing shareholders. Special Resolution 12 will, if passed, give the Directors power to allot for cash and sell from treasury equity securities up to 20% of the Company's existing share capital on the date of the Annual General Meeting as if Section 551 of the Act does not apply. This is the same nominal amount of share capital the Directors are seeking the authority to allot pursuant to Resolution 11. Sales of shares from treasury will be subject to the same limit. This is an increase on the authority sought last year following a revision of the Pre-emption Group's principles. For this purpose the Board classes the Company as a 'capital hungry company', it having completed fund raises in 2019 (24.5%), 2020 (20.0%) and 2021 (28.9%), with plans for further fundraises only deferred because of the market rotation in 2022 and the shares moving to a discount. Additionally, since the Company is an investment vehicle rather than a commercial operating entity, it is considered unlikely that the potential dilution of voting rights will be of concern for existing shareholders. Any
shares issued or sold under this authority will be issued or sold from treasury at a premium to the prevailing net asset value per Share after performance fee.
As explained on page 2 of the Annual Report, the Board considers net asset value per Share after performance fee to be a more appropriate and comparable measure of the Company's true net asset value per ordinary share. However, it should be noted that this could be less than the net asset value per ordinary share reported under IFRS (as adopted by the UK). This authority will expire on the date of the next Annual General Meeting or after a period of 15 months, whichever is earlier. This authority will not be used in connection with a rights issue by the Company.
The Directors intend to use the authority given by Resolutions 11 and 12 to allot shares (or sell shares from treasury) and disapply pre-emption rights only in circumstances where this will be clearly beneficial to shareholders as a whole.
The principal aim of a share buy back facility is to enhance shareholder value by acquiring shares at a discount to net asset value, as and when the Directors consider this to be appropriate. The purchase of shares, when they are trading at a discount to net asset value per share, should result in an increase in the net asset value per share for the remaining shareholders. This authority, if conferred, will only be exercised if to do so would result in an increase in the net asset value per share for the remaining shareholders and if it is considered to be in the best interests of shareholders generally. Any purchase of shares will be made within guidelines established from time to time by the Board.
Under the current Listing Rules, the maximum price that may be paid on the exercise of this authority must not exceed the higher of (i) 105% of the average of the middle market quotations for the shares over the five business days immediately preceding the date of purchase and (ii) the higher of the last independent trade and the highest current independent bid on the trading venue where the purchase is carried out. The minimum price which may be paid is 1 penny per share.
Special Resolution 14 seeks shareholder approval for the Company to hold general meetings (other than the AGM) on 14 clear days' notice.
The Company will only use this shorter notice period where it is merited by the purpose of the meeting and will endeavour to give at least 14 working days' notice if possible.
The Board considers that the resolutions relating to the above items are in the best interests of shareholders as a whole. Accordingly, the Directors unanimously recommend to shareholders that they vote in favour of the above resolutions to be proposed at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting as they intend to do in respect of their own beneficial holdings, totalling 673,249 Shares.
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(The proposed changes to the investment policy are denoted by blue underlined text.)
The Company's investment objective is to generate capital growth over the long term through investment in a focused portfolio of fast growing and/or high potential private financial services technology ("fintech") businesses based predominantly in the UK and wider Europe.
In order to achieve its investment objective, the Company invests in early or later stage investments in unquoted fintech businesses. The Company intends to realise value through exiting these investments over time.
The Company seeks exposure to early stage businesses which are high growth, with scalable opportunities, and have disruptive technologies in the banking, insurance and wealth and asset management sectors as well as those that provide services to underpin the financial sector and other cross-industry propositions.
Investments are expected to be mainly in the form of equity and equity related instruments issued by portfolio companies, although investments may be made by way of convertible debt instruments. The Company intends to invest in unquoted companies and will ensure that the Company has suitable investor protection rights where appropriate. The Company may also invest in partnerships, limited liability partnerships and other legal forms of entity. The Company will not invest in publicly traded companies. However, portfolio companies may seek initial public offerings from time to time, in which case the Company may continue to hold such investments without restriction.
The Company may acquire investments directly or by way of holdings in special purpose vehicles or intermediate holding entities (such as the Partnership).
The Management Team has historically taken a board or board observer position at investee companies and, where in the best interests of the Company, will do so in relation to future investee companies.
The Company's portfolio is expected to be diversified across a number of geographical areas predominantly within the UK and wider Europe, and the Company will at all times invest and manage the portfolio in a manner consistent with spreading investment risk.
The Management Team will actively manage the portfolio to maximise returns, including helping to scale the team, refining and driving key performance indicators, stimulating growth, and positively influencing future financing and exits.
The Company will invest and manage its assets with the object of spreading risk through the following investment restrictions:
In addition, the Company will itself not invest more than 15 per cent. of its gross assets in other investment companies or investment trusts which are listed on the Official List of the FCA.
Each of the restrictions above will be calculated at the time of investment and disregard the effect of the receipt of rights, bonuses, benefits in the nature of capital or by reason of any other action affecting every holder of that investment. The Company will not be required to dispose of any investment or to rebalance the portfolio as a result of a change in the respective valuations of its assets.
For the purposes of the investment policy, "Net Asset Value" means the consolidated assets of the Company and its consolidated subsidiaries (together "the Group") less their consolidated liabilities, determined in accordance with the accounting principles adopted by the Group from time to time.
Save for investments made using equity-related instruments as described above, the Company will not employ derivatives of any kind for investment purposes, but derivatives may be used for currency hedging purposes.
The Company may, from time to time, use borrowings to manage its working capital requirements but shall not borrow for investment purposes. Borrowings will not exceed 10 per cent. of the Company's Net Asset Value, calculated at the time of borrowing.
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The Company may hold cash on deposit and may invest in cash equivalent investments, which may include short-term investments in money market type funds and tradeable debt securities.
There is no restriction on the amount of cash or cash equivalent investments that the Company may hold or where it is held. The Board has agreed prudent cash management guidelines with the AIFM and the Portfolio Manager to ensure an appropriate risk/return profile is maintained. Cash and cash equivalents are held with approved counterparties.
It is expected that the Company will hold between 5 and 15 per cent. of its Gross Assets in cash or cash equivalent investments, for the purpose of making follow-on investments in accordance with the Company's investment policy and to manage the working capital requirements of the Company.
No material change will be made to the investment policy without the approval of Shareholders by ordinary resolution. Non-material changes to the investment policy may be approved by the Board.
In the event of a breach of the investment policy set out above and the investment and gearing restrictions set out therein, the Management Team shall inform the AIFM and the Board upon becoming aware of the same and if the AIFM and/or the Board considers the breach to be material, notification will be made to a Regulatory Information Service.
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