The People’s Operator to raise funds for new marketing strategy & to pay off debt
Melanie May | 13 December 2017 | News
The People’s Operator has announced plans to raise up to £3.2m to pay off debt and implement a new marketing strategy.
Last week, The People’s Operator, which launched in 2012 to offer mobile phone users a way of donating to charity with their monthly phone bill, said that it had conditionally agreed to issue 2.788bn new ordinary shares at 0.1p per share to raise a gross £2.8m. A shareholder meeting will be held on 22 December to vote whether to approve the fundraising.
The company announced back in September that it intended to seek new funds, and that it would be launching a new marketing strategy focused on its ethos of supporting good causes and on sustainably growing a high value customer base. It will use the money raised to settle outstanding liabilities of approximately £500,000 and to implement a new marketing strategy with its media partner 360i. 360i has been tasked with the relaunch of the core message of the TPO brand: ‘the ability to do good within the framework of an everyday medium’.
In a statement, it said that of the proposed fundraising of up to £3.2 million, “the Company has currently conditionally procured subscribers for 2,788,000,000 new ordinary shares of £0.0005 each (“Ordinary Shares”) at a price of 0.1 pence per Ordinary Share to raise gross proceeds of approximately £2.788 million (the “Subscription”) with an associated conditional issue of 1,394,000,000 warrants over Ordinary Shares (the “Warrants”).”
Yesterday (12 December) the virtual mobile network operator also announced that Michael Butler, Non-Executive Chairman, and Juliet Rosenfeld, Non-Executive Director, had advanced £100,000 and £150,000 respectively to the company to enable it to meet its immediate working capital needs in an advance of their participation in the company’s fundraising.
TPO is co-chaired by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and has been headed by Acting CEO Sam Tillotson since October. It promises to pass on 10% of each customer’s bill, for those who choose this option, to causes chosen by the customer, and also pledges to give 25% of the company’s profits to the TPO Foundation to be distributed to good causes.
Why not spread some festive cheer this year with TPO Mobile? Give 10% of your bill to a cause you care about, at no additional cost to you! #Give #Gift #WednesdayWisdom pic.twitter.com/SWuHbQ7XPo
— TPO Mobile (@TPOuk) December 6, 2017
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.