New Order
17 June 2019
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 the largest single order of its highly prized Illirico Selene marble from the Maleshevë quarry in Kosovo.
Fox Marble has received an order for 1,850 tons of Illirico Selene (the silver grey marble) from an existing customer. Loading of the material has begun, and the order will only be recognised as revenue as the material is despatched from the quarry over the next few weeks.
The order is notable because it consists not only of the higher quality large blocks of stone but also large quantities of small and semi blocks which constitute a lesser grade of block. This has the additional effect of clearing out old stock extracted some years ago and freeing up space in the quarry to further extend the quarrying area and reach additional resources of good quality stone.
This has taken place in part because the demand for this material is expanding with the increased penetration in various markets and the competition for this material from our quarry is growing.
Fox Marble is now focussing on penetrating these markets with material from Fox Marble’s other quarries including Grigio Argento, Rosso Cait and Flora from the Cervenilla quarry and the Breccia Paradisea and Etrusco Dorato from its Syriganë quarry.
Chris Gilbert, CEO, commented
“Demand for Illirico Selene is high, with sales being constrained by our ability to extract sufficient quantities to sell into these growing markets and our success in selling our lesser grades of blocks is a consequence of this demand. As a result, we expect to see growth in our sales in 2019 and look forward to updating the market accordingly”.
The information communicated in this announcement is inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation 596/2014.
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
Fiona Hadfield, Finance Director
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7380 0999
Brandon Hill Capital (Joint Broker)
Oliver Stansfield
Optiva Securities (Joint Broker)
Christian Dennis/Jeremy King
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3463 5000
Tel:+44 (0) 20 3137 1903
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nomad)
Liam Murray / Sandy Jamieson
Ludovico Lazzaretti
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7213 0880
Notes to Editors
Fox Marble (AIM: FOX), is a marble production, processing and distribution company in Kosovo and the Balkans region.
Its marble products, which includes Illirico Bianco, Illirico Selene, Grigio Argento and are gaining traction globally both to international wholesale companies as well as being supplied directly into luxury residential properties. In the UK these include among others St George’s Homes and Capital and Counties Plc’s Lillie Square development. In Sydney, Australia Rosso Cait, Alexandrian White and Breccia Paradisea marble have been used in what is expected to be Australia’s most expensive residential property. These sales serve to demonstrate 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.
Fox Marble holds 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 increase production. 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.
Caution regarding forward looking statements
Certain statements in this announcement, are, or may be deemed to be, forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as ''believe'', ''could'', "should" ''envisage'', ''estimate'', ''intend'', ''may'', ''plan'', ''potentially'', "expect", ''will'' or the negative of those, variations or comparable expressions, including references to assumptions. These forward looking statements are not based on historical facts but rather on the Directors' current expectations and assumptions regarding the Company's future growth, results of operations, performance, future capital and other expenditures (including the amount, nature and sources of funding thereof), competitive advantages, business prospects and opportunities. Such forward looking statements reflect the Directors' current beliefs and assumptions and are based on information currently available to the Directors.