22 September 2020

LIVE COMPANY GROUP PLC

("LVCG", the "Company" or the "Group")

UNAUDITED HALF-YEARLY RESULTS FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 30 JUNE 2020

Live Company Group Plc (AIM: LVCG), a leading live events and entertainment group, announces its unaudited half-yearly results for the six-month period ended 30 June 2020.

Highlights

In spite of revenues of £0.6m for the first three months (Q1 2019: £0.7m) the Company recorded only minimal revenues for Q2 £0.4m (Q2 2019: £1.3m), total revenues for H1 were £1.0m (H1 2019: £2.0m).

•  Revenues are beginning to return during Q3 with a stronger Q4 expected.

•  Twenty three 2020 events have been postponed to later in 2020 or 2021. Only one 2020 event has been cancelled.

•  New contracts have been signed with Powderham Castle and Da Vinci Science Centre in Pennsylvania, USA.

•  A new long-term contract has been signed for BRICKOSAURS to continue at the Holon Toto Arena, Israel from 1 October 2020 to 31 May 2021. BRICKOSAURS is then due to return to a Zoo in Europe until November 2021 when it is due to travel to Asia for 2022.

•  The Group has secured a multi-year contract with: Frederick Warne and Co Limited (Penguin Books Limited) to produce a themed interactive tour around the World of Beatrix Potter - including Peter Rabbit^TM.

•  Secured a multi-year contract with the Copyrights Group Limited to produce an interactive tour

•  for Paddington Bear^TM.

In order to survive the onset of COVID-19 and to fund a re-launch of its business, the Group has embarked on fundraising and cost savings.

Fundraising

The Company has raised £0.4m of new equity.

It has also raised the following debt:-

•  £0.5m loan from its Chairman;

•  £0.25m (CBILS) from NatWest Limited Plc; and

•  £1.5m (CBILS) from Close Leasing Limited - replacing RiverFort's loan and ESA facility, which has been cancelled.

Cost Savings

LVCG took advantage of the UK government's furlough scheme recently announcing significant cost savings - £0.9m of which have been made permanent and will carry through into 2021 and beyond. During Q2 all staff earning above the furlough threshold have taken 50% of their fees and salaries in shares in the company. The Non-executive Directors have waived their fees during Q2 and Q3.

Appointments

The Company has announced the following:

•  The appointment of a new NOMAD - Beaumont Cornish;

•  The appointment of Trudy Norris-Grey as Deputy Chairperson building on her role as an independent Non-executive Director; and

•  The appointment of Richard Collett as Finance Director (CFO in due course) and Sarah Dees as COO .

David Ciclitira, Chairman, said:

"It has been an extremely challenging first half of the year for the Group with COVID-19 halting the majority of our business for four months. We have successfully raised a combination of debt and equity over £2.5 million, enabling us to survive and re-launch our touring business. We have also been able to replace our relationship with RiverFort. We have taken our time to restructure the cost base of the business, permanently reducing our costs by £0.9m per annum.

"We have successfully maintained the relationships with our key partners and begun to build new properties for the significant demand in 2021 and beyond. We have introduced new senior management, which I expect to assist the Group in its profitable growth in forthcoming years."

Enquiries:

Live Company Group Plc                                                              Tel: 020 7225 2000

Sarah Ullman, Chief Operating Officer

Beaumont Cornish Limited (Nominated Adviser)                      Tel: 020 7628 3396

 Roland Cornish/Rosalind Hill Abrahams

Shard Capital Partners LLP (Broker)                                           Tel: 020 7186 9952

Damon Heath

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No 596/2014.

LIVE COMPANY GROUP

Live Company Group plc ("LVCG", the "Company" or the "Group") is a live events and entertainment Group, founded by David Ciclitira in December 2017.  The Group was admitted to trading on AIM in December 2017, following the reverse acquisition of Brick Live Group and Parallel Live Group by LVCG.

The Group is a network of partner-driven fan-based shows using BRICKLIVE created content worldwide.  The Company owns the rights to BRICKLIVE - an interactive experience built around the creative ethos of the world's most popular construction toy bricks.  BRICKLIVE, which is fast becoming a leading children's education and entertainment brand, actively encourages all to learn, build and play, and provides inspirational events and shows where like-minded fans can push the boundaries of their creativity.  Bright Bricks is the Group's production centre for building brick-based models.  The Group is an independent producer of BRICKLIVE and is not associated with the LEGO Group.

Website: www.livecompanygroup.com.

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

The first six months of 2020 can be seen as a game of two halves for the Group.

In the first quarter pre COVID-19 we were on track to reach our forecast revenue numbers (since withdrawn) with 18 themed tours in circulation and three further under construction, and significant contracted revenue for 2021.

Q2 saw the start of lockdown brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in all zoos, exhibition centres, museums and retail outlets being temporarily shut down on a global basis. This presented an extremely challenging time for the Group with minimal revenue and significant uncertainty. Despite zoos and museums beginning to open at the end of July, it is still a challenging time.

Looking forward to Q4 2020, 2021 and 2022, I am cautiously optimistic. Whilst it is difficult to currently promote interactive exhibitions, we are witnessing significant interest in our touring shows. Our customer base has remained extremely loyal and I'm pleased to say that only one of twenty four events affected has been cancelled with the remaining twenty three due to take place in 2021. At the time of writing, we currently have eleven events taking place globally.

When we started 2020, we were in danger of not being able to provide our partners with assets. Looking forward to 2021 and beyond, it is clear that we will be faced with a similar problem.

We have decided therefore to plan for additional builds in the first half of 2021, enabling us to launch new tours to cope with the upcoming demand.

Our strategy of maximising year-round asset utilisation by continuing to build on our relationships in the Southern Hemisphere has started to come to fruition as we recently announced a new contract in Israel for BRICKOSAURS to tour from the beginning of October 2020 to the end of May 2021.  This means that BRICKOSAURS is now sold out until November 2021 with ongoing discussions for it to tour in Asia throughout 2022.  We have also signed contracts in South Africa with BRICKLIVE OCEAN for December 2020 and are in advanced conversations with clients in Australia for a potential touring show at the end of 2021.

BRICKLIVE Touring

Whilst our Zoo division remains core to our strategy for BRICKLIVE Touring, going forward I believe that we will see significant interest from indoor venues and outside spaces for our touring assets. Last year our assets were seen in 71 events. Looking forward, I expect this number to be surpassed come 2022.

BRICKLIVE IP

In March 2020 we entered into agreements with The Copyrights Group Limited, to produce a touring interactive experience based on the Paddington Bear^TM brand and with Frederick Warne & Co Limited (an imprint of Penguin Random House) to produce a themed tour around the iconic World of Beatrix Potter characters including Peter Rabbit^TM.

The strategy behind the acquisition of the licensing of these brands was to promote their usage in shopping centres and malls. As was seen in late 2019 with the successful introduction of Nickelodeon's Paw Patrol, and Penguin's Snowman and the Snowdog, there is no doubt that these smaller touring shows have been and will be a success. Discussions are under way in the UK and certain European markets for the introduction of these properties in Q4 2020, and our first contract for Paddington Bear for this Christmas is further evidence that these will be successful. I predict that we will witness an extension of this programme globally in 2021 and beyond.

Corporate

In March 2020 we extended the terms of the two lending facilities we had with RiverFort Global Opportunities PCC Limited and YA II and, as a result of the market disruption caused by COVID-19, the parties agreed to suspend the Equity Sharing Agreement.

We sourced further funding (£0.25m) under the Government's backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme ('CBILS') from NatWest Bank Plc.

To provide additional support, I personally loaned £0.5m to the Group.

Post balance sheet

• We raised £0.4m for working capital purposes and I converted £0.2m of my personal loan into shares in the Company - reducing the interest cost and showing my continued support for and belief in the Group and its strategy.

• In August 2020 we announced that we were restructuring our Group debt - securing a CBILS loan of £1.5m from Close Leasing Limited, thereby enabling the Group to cancel all of our existing facilities and arrangements with RiverFort and YA II.

• I was pleased to guarantee the non-government portion of the CBILS loan of £0.3m.

• The new facility allows us to decrease our cost of debt and partner with a well-known UK institution.

• In April 2020 we announced that Trudy-Norris-Grey would become Non-executive Deputy Chairperson with a core part of her role being focussed on corporate governance. We also announced that Richard Collett was appointed as Finance Director and Sarah Dees joined as Chief Operating Officer.

• In June 2020 we announced the appointment of a new NOMAD - Beaumont Cornish.

COVID-19

As a consequence of COVID-19 and the uncertainty it has created in the geographic markets in which the Group operates and in accordance with IAS36 we have impaired the value of our investments and associated goodwill, principally in relation to Brick Live Far East Limited ('BLFE') and the operations of our joint venture Brick Live CED (Beijing) Company Limited ('BLB'). Whilst the future of BLB itself is uncertain I am confident the wider China market will continue to represent a significant opportunity for the Group.

Cost Savings

The Group took advantage of the UK government's furlough scheme and recently announcing significant cost savings - £0.9m of which have been made permanent and will carry through into 2021 and beyond. During Q2 all staff earning above the furlough threshold have taken 50% of their fees and salaries in shares in the Company. The NEDs have waived their fees during Q2 and Q3.

Looking forward

It has been an extremely challenging first half of 2020 for the Group with COVID-19 halting the majority of our business for four months. While business was on hold, the Group has been able to streamline the business by successfully raising debt and equity of over £2.5 million, enabling us to survive and re-launch our touring business. We have taken our time to restructure the cost base of the business and successfully maintained the relationships with our key partners and begun to build new properties for the significant demand in 2021 and beyond. We have introduced new senior management, which I expect to assist the Group in its profitable growth in forthcoming years.

I am delighted that the Group and our staff remain strong from the past challenging months, having learned ways to entertain and educate safely but with the same level of passion and pride in our models and offering. The response that we have from the zoos, museums and other venues that have opened has been extremely positive as children and adults alike engage globally with our product.

David Ciclitira

Chairman

21 September 2020

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Revenue and operations

As outlined in the Chairman's Statement the ramifications of COVID-19, and the various measures taken to contain it, cast a long shadow over the first six months of 2020. Whilst the Group has taken steps to lessen the consequence for revenue and Pre-Exceptional items EBITDA  ('PXEBITDA'), details of which are set out below, we have as previously announced (RNS Number : 2706N 19 May 2020) withdrawn our financial and operational guidance for the remainder of 2020 and 2021. As such no comparison is given to forecast or expectations in these financial statements for the six months to 30 June 2020 other than to note that for the first three months of the period the Group was performing in line with or exceeding expectation.

PXEBITDA

The Group uses PXEBITDA to allow the users of the consolidated financial statements to gain a clearer understanding of the underlying performance of the business without the impact of one off non-recurring costs of an exceptional nature.

Exceptional items

As set out in Note 3 exceptional items includes two non-cash charges being the impairment of investments and goodwill and the share option and warrant charge.

Impact of COVID-19

Twenty four events representing total revenue of £1.0m have been affected by COVID-19 restrictions, of these all but one have subsequently been rearranged for alternative dates in 2020 or 2021. In response to this, the Directors took the following steps to lessen the consequence for the Group.

•     Obtained £0.5m loan from the Chairman, David Ciclitira;

•     Obtained £0.25m unsecured term loan from NatWest with a 12-month repayment holiday;

•     Extended the repayment timetable for the YA II and RiverFort facility;

•     Utilised government schemes to defer tax liabilities;

•     Furloughed employees under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ("CJRS");

•     Agreed with staff earning over the UK Government's CJRS support threshold, that 25% of their salary in April, 50% in May and 50% in June would be paid in shares;

•     Completed cost cutting exercise resulting in twenty nine job losses;

•     Agreed to settle liabilities with share-based payments for a number of contractors and suppliers; and

•     Secured an early surrender of premises used for storage and consolidated all storage into a single site, saving an additional £40,000 per annum.

Post balance sheet events

On 3 July 2020 the Group completed a £0.4m share placing and conversion of £0.2m of the outstanding balance on David Ciclitira's Loan (RNS Number : 1520R 26 June 2020).

On 14 August 2020 (RNS Number : 2514W 17 August 2020) the Group entered into a £1.5m CBILS borrowing agreement with Close Leasing Limited, the proceeds from the facility were used to repay the outstanding YA II and RiverFort borrowing and to terminate the ESA described in Note 34 to the annual report for the year ended 31 December 2019.

In addition to an early termination fee of £0.1m payable by the Group, Live Company Group EBT Limited purchased 5,726,480 shares previously held by the YA II and RiverFort (representing 6.51%. of the Company's issued share capital) into trust, at a cost of approximately £0.06m.

These payments together with the Group's expected share of the ESA proceeds (£2m at the time of the agreement and included in non-current receivables in the Groups unaudited consolidated statement of financial position at 30 June 2020) which following the termination will no longer be receivable will be considered part of the consideration for the share purchase at a group level and will be included in the Group retained earnings in the consolidated statement of financial position.

As of 21 September 2020, the Group had £157,000 of available cash.

Richard Collett

Finance Director

21 September 2020 

Unaudited condensed consolidated income statement for six months to 30 June 2020