United Cacao Limited SEZC (AIM: CHOC), the AIM-quoted cacao plantation company based in Peru, further announces that options over 50,000 ordinary shares of US$0.001 ("Ordinary Shares") at an exercise price of US$1.00 per Ordinary Share, 20,000 Ordinary Shares at an exercise price of US$1.25 per Ordinary Share and 37,500 Ordinary Shares at an exercise price of US$2.00 per Ordinary Share have been exercised by an employee of the Company (the "Option Exercise").
Application has been made for 107,500 new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM, which is expected to occur on 2 November 2015. The Company's issued share capital following the admission of the new Ordinary Shares issued pursuant to the Option Exercise and, the new Ordinary Shares issued pursuant to the Equity Placing announced earlier today, will consist of 19,171,574 Ordinary Shares with voting rights. United Cacao does not hold any Ordinary Shares in treasury.
The aforementioned figure of 19,171,574 Ordinary Shares may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, United Cacao under the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.
The Company also announces that it has taken delivery today of the first shipment of Sacha Gold from the Cimarron Estates in Ecuador. This breed of cacao is a high yielding, fine flavour variety that is rapidly making in-roads across Ecuador.
Dennis Melka, Executive Chairman & CEO, commented:
"We are pleased to introduce this high yielding cacao into our estate portfolio that has productivity similar to that of CCN 51 yet fine flavour characteristics. We will monitor the early plantings carefully but we are encouraged by what we have already seen in the Coca region of Ecuador which is adjacent to the state of Loreto where we operate. We are the first grower outside of Ecuador to partner with Cimarron Estates in the development of this variety."