Fox Marble signs a Memorandum of Understanding with Pristine Stone NYC LLC
AIM: FOX
10 August 2017
Fox Marble Holdings plc
(“Fox Marble” or the “Company”)
Fox Marble, the AIM listed company focused on marble quarrying and finishing in Kosovo and the Balkans region is pleased to announce it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Pristine Stone NYC LLC (“Pristine Stone”) in New York, a natural stone importer and distributor in the USA, to establish a new distribution outlet for Fox Marble products in the United States.
Under the three year agreement, Fox Marble will take a 5% share in Pristine Stone for nil consideration. Pristine Stone will act as a marketing, sales and distribution agent for the marble material produced by the Company from its quarries in Kosovo and Macedonia. The marble supplied to Pristine Stone will be cut and polished into slabs and tiles at Fox Marble’s own facility in Lipjan, Kosovo, before being shipped to the United States.
In consideration, and subject to achieving minimum sales volumes of US$1.5 million over the three years as determined by the Company,
a) Pristine Stone will be granted priority rights to sell Fox Marble material in the United States.
b) Pristine Stone will be granted 750,000 warrants issued in equal instalments over three years at an exercise price of 2p over market price on the day of issue.
Pristine Stone is a New York based importer and distributor of natural stones, featuring the Kosovan marble sourced through Fox Marble. The management has over twenty years' experience in the stone industry including sales, fabrication, and installation. Pristine Stone will serve as a primary distributor for Fox Marble as the company looks to grow its presence in the United States with a team that has the ability to sell this unique, high quality marble into the largest end market for slabs in the world. Pristine's founding principals Frank Kaloshi and Tim Seymour have built a company that leverages the combined expertise of Mr. Kaloshi in the high end marble market, and Mr. Seymour as a well-known financial market participant, and long-time successful investor in Eastern European companies focused in the materials sector.
Chris Gilbert, Chief Executive of Fox Marble, said:
“This agreement builds on our strategy of increasing our global footprint as we continue to develop further as a fully integrated production, processing and distribution company of pre-eminent quality marble. As such we look forward to working with Pristine Stone which, through our incentivized distribution agreement is structured to help deliver maximum sales penetration of our marble product into the American market.”
For more information on Fox Marble please visit www.foxmarble.net or contact:
Fox Marble Holdings plc
Chris Gilbert, Chief Executive Officer - Tel: +44 (0) 20 7380 0999
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nomad)
Liam Murray - Tel: +44 (0) 20 7213 0883
Brandon Hill Capital (Joint Broker)
Oliver Stansfield - Tel: +44 (0) 20 3463 5000
Beaufort Securities Limited (Joint Broker)
Elliott Hance - Tel: +44 (0) 207 382 8300
Yellow Jersey PR
Felicity Winkles - Tel: +44 (0) 7748 843 871
Notes to Editors
Fox Marble (AIM:FOX), is a leading low-capex global marble production, processing and distribution company in Kosovo and the Balkans region.
Its marble products, which includes Illyric White, Selene Grigio and Etruscan Gold are gaining traction globally both to large off-take/distribution companies and being supplied directly into luxury residential properties, such as St George’s Homes and Capital and Counties Plc.’s Lillie Square development in the UK and Point Piper in Sydney, Australia, touted to be Australia’s most expensive property. Underscoring the desirability of Fox’s premium marble products as the stone of choice in some of the most prestigious and expensive residential developments around the world.
In terms of production, Fox Marble has a 40 year mining licences for six separate marble quarries with a maiden JORC resource indicating an in-situ valuation of approximately Euro 16.5 billion. Fox has taken three of the six sites into production (the Drini and Maleshevë quarries, both in Kosovo and from the Prilep Quarry in Macedonia) and continues to ramp up its operations. Notably, Fox has access to over 300 million cubic metres (over 1bn tons) of premium quality marble.
Marble demand continues to grow with stable pricing, predominantly driven by the construction and real-estate industries, on which Fox is looking to capitalise.