Moa Group Limited (NZX: MOA) Announces Divestment of Moa Brewing Company

Friday 19th February 2021

Moa Group Limited announces the divestment of Moa Brewing Company, continuing the development and expansion of its successful hospitality group, Savor Group, one of New Zealand’s largest hospitality businesses.

Highlights

• Divestment of Moa Brewing Company Limited for total proceeds of approximately $1.9 million

• Divestment creates greater balance sheet flexibility to pursue growth and capability to generate future earnings

• Company name change and rebrand to Savor Limited (NZX: SVR )

• Appointment of Lucien Law to Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Group

• Appointment of EY as the Group’s new external auditor

Sale of Moa Brewing Company

The future of Moa Brewing Company has been a focus of the Board and management over the past six months. The Board recognises the value that the Brewing business has brought to the Group, which formed the foundations of where the Group stands today.

However, the Board, with the support of management, has concluded that the best outcome for shareholders is to allocate capital and management attention to the areas of the business with the greatest growth and earnings potential.

The hospitality businesses, under the brand of Savor Group, has performed above expectations since it was acquired on 1 April 2019. The subsequent acquisition of Non Solo Pizza, and development of new venues has seen a progressive shift in the Group’s operations to now be primarily hospitality focused, with those operations representing 65% of revenue and over 100% of profitability in FY20.

Lucien Law, Incoming Chief Executive Officer of Savor Limited, said: “Now with a single focus we will move on exciting opportunities for strategic growth through new concepts, both refreshing existing spaces and adding new ones to deliver the best experience for our customers.

“The successful relaunch of Non-Solo Pizza and the expansion of the Azabu brand to Mission Bay, have highlighted the growth potential for the hospitality business, and we are confident about the expertise of the team to execute on more opportunities in our pipeline in due course.”

On the sale of Moa Brewing, the Group consulted with a range of potential purchasers of the business and determined the best outcome for shareholders was to unconditionally agree to sell Moa Brewing Company Limited to Mallbeca Limited, a company associated with current CEO Stephen Smith and his family interests, for approximately $1.9 million on a debt and cash free basis. The transaction is expected to complete at the end of February 2021.

The Board is delighted that Moa Brewing will continue under the leadership and ownership of current CEO Stephen Smith, who has been invaluable in identifying the core business challenges over the past two years to enable stronger fundamentals in the future.

Please see the links below for details:

Divestment of Moa Brewing Company

Source: Moa Group Limited

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