blur (Group) plc (“blur,” “the Group” or “the Company”) Admission to Trading on LSE AIM

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--blur (Group) plc (LSE AIM: BLUR), operator of the Global Services Exchange at blurgroup.com, is pleased to announce today details of a placing of 4,878,049 new ordinary shares at a price of 82 pence ($1.33) per share (“Placing Price”) raising a gross placing proceeds of $6.48 million (£4 million) (before expenses) (“Placing”). On admission to trading on LSE AIM, the Company will have a market capitalisation of approximately $32.6 million (£20.1 million) based on the Placing Price for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of the Company.

Admission and dealings in the ordinary shares of the Company are expected to commence at 8.00am on 5 October 2012 under the ticker symbol BLUR.

Overview of blur Group and the Global Services Exchange.

• blur Group owns and operates online exchanges where businesses in any country can buy, sell and pay for business services like marketing, advertising and technology. Businesses brief projects and expert service providers pitch for the project and the entire process runs online right through to project delivery and payment.
• In early 2010, when the Exchange formally launched, just over three briefs per month were submitted. In Q2 2012 this had risen to nearly 60 per month from companies like the AA, Coral, Exceed, Fantasy World, Red Commerce, Harvey Nichols, the Financial Times, Berlitz, Butlins, GE Healthcare and Tyco. Over the same time, average brief value has grown from approximately $1,500 in 2010 to an average for 2012 YTD of $11,000. Now more than 1,000 briefs have been submitted with a combined brief value of over $13.5 million, with these briefs coming from the US, UK, Europe, Africa and Asia.
• Today, blur Group has over 20,000 experts, agencies and service provider firms in over 130 countries on six crowd platforms who benefit from networking, peer advice as well as new business opportunities. All are reviewed and approved by the Group’s Exchange Support executives before joining. The Company is also building crowds of experts for legal and accounting services, with a view to accepting briefs for these services in H1 2013.
• Total sales for the six months ended 30 June 2012 were $1,502,000 with an increase in revenues of 75% to $975,000 (H1 2011: $557,000) and deferred revenues of $527,000. EBITDA for the first half was a loss of $483,000 (H1 2011: EBITDA loss of $152,000). The Group now employs 29 full time employees in London and Dallas.
• The purpose of the IPO is to facilitate access to capital to fund the next stage of the Group’s growth, raise the Group’s profile as an international technology leader and also support the Group’s long term strategic goals. The net proceeds of the Placing are intended to be used in technology development, corporate sales team growth, support services and marketing.

Philip Letts, CEO and Founder, commented: “Since 2007 when we started to build our first expert crowd, we have gone from 50 expert service providers to over 20,000 as of Q2 2012. During this time the number of briefs has increased significantly. Our ambition has always been to build a UK global technology success story and the IPO is a key part in helping us to achieve that goal, and to demonstrate that there is a UK market for technology IPOs. We look forward to a successful future as a public company to the benefit of the Company and our customers, experts, employees and shareholders.”

Find the full press release and additional background information see: http://blurgroup.com/blurnews

All prices are based on an exchange rate of £1: $1.62

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