Harman Patil (Editor)

FIH group plc

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Type
  
Public limited company

Revenue
  
38.56 million GBP (2015)

Founded
  
1997

Traded as
  
LSE: FIH

Headquarters
  
United Kingdom

FIH group plc

Formerly called
  
Falkland island holdings (1997-2016) FOSSILDRIVE PLC (1997)

Industry
  
Conglomerate holding Company

Area served
  
UK and Falkland Islands

Key people
  
Edmund Rowland (Group CEO/Chairman) John Foster (FIH CEO)

Stock price
  
FIH (LON) 302.60 GBX -8.40 (-2.70%)10 Mar, 4:30 PM GMT - Disclaimer

Subsidiaries
  
Falkland Islands Company, Momart

FIH group plc (LSE: FIH) or FIH (formerly Falkland Islands Holdings plc) is a British conglomerate which plays a key role in the economy of the Falkland Islands through the Falkland Islands Company. Its other main businesses are the Portsmouth Harbour Ferry Company, which operates the Gosport Ferry in the south of England, and a London-based art storage and transport company called Momart.

Contents

History

In 1997, Anglo United, which had an unsustainable amount of debt, underwent a capital reconstruction and distributes shares in Falkland Islands Holdings plc to its shareholders. Anglo United shareholders received 1 share in FIH for every 300 shares of AU.

in January 1998 - FIH was first listed on the London Stock Exchange, with £2m of debt the issue price of 100p. The Company was capitalised at £6 million. In January 2003 FIH share listing moved to the AIM market.

In February 2004 Falkland Gold and Minerals Limited (FGML) was established with financing to carry out an aero magnetic survey of the Falklands to exploit its exploration licence covering the whole of the Island. In June 2004 Falkland Oil and Gas Limited (FOGL) was established with financing to carry out a 2D seismic survey over its 33,000 km2 offshore licence to the South and East of the Falklands. In October 2004 FOGL raised £12m and its shares were admitted to AIM, capitalising the Company at £32m. In December 2004 FGML raised £10m and shares admitted to AIM, FOGL was granted an exploration licence over a further 50,000 km2 to the South and East of the Islands. and FIH acquired Portsmouth Harbour Ferry Company for £7.5m.

In June 2005 FOGL raised £10 million through an Institutional placing. FIH subscribes £2m increasing its share holding to 18.3%. In February 2006, FIH sold 1.8m shares in (FOGL), realising £2.4m and reducing its holding back to 16.3%. In December 2006, FOGL raised an £8m convertible loan to fund its ongoing exploration programme.

In January 2007 FIH sold 100% of its holding in FGML for 6p per share to RAB Capital and in October 2007 FOGL announced a farm-in deal with BHP Billiton to fund drilling programme in South Atlantic.

In March 2008 FIH acquired 100% of Momart, a UK market leader in the handling and storage of fine art and antiquities, for £10.27m.

In November 2009 FIH sold 3 million shares in FOGL after the placing earlier in the month generating proceeds of £3.6 million and a profit of £3.0 million at a price of 119 pence per share. This reduced FIH's holding to 12.0 million shares (8.2%).

In January 2012 FIH participated in the placing of new shares by FOGL by subscribing for 2 million new shares at a cost of £0.86 million (43 pence per share). FIH's holding in FOGL shares was increased to 14 million shares (4.4%).

July 2012, £10.0m equity capital raising FIH raised £10.0 million gross from a share issue at 320p per share. £8.0 million was subscribed by Blackfish Capital and £2.0 million has been raised from an Open Offer to the existing shareholders. The proceeds from the share issue will be used to develop the Group's assets in the Falkland Islands in anticipation of the economic growth that the Board believe will follow. July 2012, FIH sold 1.2 million shares in FOGL for £1.01 million (86 pence per share), generating a profit of £0.77 million and reducing its holding to 12.8 million shares (4.0%).

March 2015 FIH sold 7.825 million shares in FOGL for £1.6 million (29 pence per share), generating a profit of £0.7 million and reducing its holding to 5.0 million shares (0.9%). May 2015, the last 5 million shares in Falkland Oil & Gas ("FOGL") sold for £1.4 million, generating a profit of £0.4 million for the Group.With the sale of these 5 million shares, FIH completed the realisation of its investment in FOGL. Over the last 10 years since FOGL's flotation, FIH has generated over £8 million in cash proceeds and £5 million in profits from its highly successful investment in FOGL

January 2016 the company had a capital reorganisation involving a share consolidation (1000 to 1) and split (1 to 1000) decreasing the number of shareholders from 2139 to 510.

September 2016 the group changed its name to FIH Group plc to more properly reflect the balance of the group’s activities which are now predominantly in Europe and the UK. Despite this change of name, the Group’s Falklands business, the Falklands Islands Company (“FIC”), remains a core part of the Group.

Financial information and holdings

FIH shares have traded on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in London since 13 January 2003. In July 2010, FIH's market value was around £36m. It made a pretax profit of £5.669m in the year ended 31 March 2010 on revenue of £29.224m. £3.3m came from the sale of shares in Falkland Oil and Gas in November 2009.

References

FIH group plc Wikipedia