TORONTO, Ontario – December 28, 2016 – Grenville Strategic Royalty Corp. (TSXV: GRC) (“Grenville”), along with partners Foregrowth Holdco Inc. (“Foregrowth”) and Darwin Strategic Royalty Corp. (“Darwin”), is pleased to announce that it has contracted for a gross sales royalty from eSCRIBE. (“Escribe”) in exchange for an advance of $250,000 CDN. As part of the joint venture agreements with Foregrowth and Darwin, Grenville will fund $125,000 CDN of the investment, while Foregrowth and Darwin will each fund $62,500 CDN. Grenville and the joint venture partners will receive a royalty based on Escribe’s gross revenue within Grenville’s average royalty rate of between 1% and 4%.
Founded in 2003, eSCRIBE is a leading North American provider of secure cloud based paperless board meeting software solutions, and has become the go-to choice of public and private sector boards, committees and councils looking to boost transparency, citizen participation, improve organizational efficiency and meet evolving accessibility standards. eSCRIBE’s Microsoft Azure cloud-based configurable suite of collaborative meeting management software can be used to create and enforce predictable, repeatable meeting patterns for collaboration among people working under a mandate towards a goal.
“We are pleased to welcome Grenville and its partners as one of the lead investors in our latest investment round,” said Robert Treumann, eSCRIBE’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the closing of this strategic growth capital, our already competitive solution set, and expanded Microsoft co-selling partnership, we are well positioned to continue to expand both our North American and International footprint.”
Grenville CEO, Steve Parry, commented, “Escribe is at the forefront of its industry as a paperless meeting automation solution and governance platform and we look forward to helping the company expand its reach with this investment.”
About eSCRIBE
eSCRIBE is a leading independent cloud provider of paperless legislative meeting management solutions. eSCRIBE’s robust user configurable meeting management engine and award winning SharePoint integration, is the go-to choice of public and private sector boards, committees and councils looking to improve efficiency, transparency and accessibility while at the same time reducing costs and impact to the environment. With eSCRIBE meeting outputs can be easily published to the web, indexed to video and audio if available; all in accordance with evolving access and accessibility requirements. With a broad base of experience and industry certifications in the design, development and support of custom legislative business process management solutions; eSCRIBE’s internal team of subject matter experts, project managers, business consultants, software engineers, quality assurance testers, and documentation experts do not outsource or subcontract any of the development, support or enhancement of its products.
About Grenville
Based in Toronto, Grenville Strategic Royalty Corp. is a publicly-traded royalty company that makes investments in established businesses with revenues of up to $50 million dollars. Grenville generates revenues from royalty payments and buyouts from contracts. The non-dilutive royalty financing structure offered by Grenville competes directly with traditional equity to meet the long-term financing needs of companies on more attractive commercial terms.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Grenville Strategic Royalty Corp.
Steven Parry
Chief Executive Officer
(416) 777-0383
This press release contains certain “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and may also contain statements that may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only the Company’s beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Company’s control. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “plans”, “expects” or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates” or “does not anticipate”, or “believes”, or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might” or “will be taken”, “will continue”, “will occur” or “will be achieved”. The forward-looking information contained herein may include, but is not limited to, information with respect to: prospective financial performance, including the performance of the joint ventures referenced herein; including the Company’s opinion regarding the current and future performance of its portfolio, expenses and operations; anticipated cash needs and need for additional financing; anticipated funding sources; future growth plans; royalty acquisition targets and proposed or completed royalty transactions; estimated operating costs; estimated market drivers and demand; business prospects and strategy; anticipated trends and challenges in the Company’s business and the markets in which it operates; the Company’s ability to pay dividends in the future and the timing and amount of those dividends;; and the Company’s financial position. By identifying such information and statements in this manner, the Company is alerting the reader that such information and statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such information and statements.
An investment in securities of the Company is speculative and subject to a number of risks including, without limitation, risks relating to: the need for additional financing; the relative speculative and illiquid nature of an investment in the Company; the volatility of the Company’s share price; the Company’s limited operating history; the Company’s ability to generate sufficient revenues; the Company’s ability to manage future growth; the limited diversification in the Company’s existing investments; the Company’s ability to negotiate additional royalty purchases from new investee companies; the Company’s dependence on the operations, assets and financial health of its investee companies; the Company’s ability to successfully manage its joint venture relationships; the Company’s limited ability to exercise control or direction over investee companies; potential defaults by investee companies and the unsecured nature of the Company’s investments; the Company’s ability to enforce on any default by an investee company; competition with other investment entities; tax matters, including the potential impact of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act on the Company; the potential impact of the Company being classified as a Passive Foreign Investment Company (“PFIC”); the Company’s ability to pay dividends in the future and the timing and amount of those dividends; reliance on key personnel, particularly the Company’s founders; dilution of shareholders’ interest through future financings; and general economic and political conditions; as well as the risks discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” on pages 16 to 22 of the Annual Information Form of the Company dated February 11, 2015 and the risks discussed herein. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended.
In connection with the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release, the Company has made certain assumptions. Assumptions about the performance of the Canadian and U.S. economies over the next 24 months and how that will affect the Company’s business and its ability to identify and close new opportunities with new investees are material factors that the Company considered when setting its strategic priorities and objectives, and its outlook for its business.
Key assumptions include, but are not limited to: assumptions that the Canadian and U.S. economies relevant to the Company’s investment focus will remain relatively stable over the next 12 to 24 months; that interest rates will not increase dramatically over the next 12 to 24 months; that the Company’s existing investees will continue to make royalty payments to the Company as and when required; that the businesses of the Company’s investees will not experience material negative results; that the Company will continue to grow its portfolio in a manner similar to what has already been established; that tax rates and tax laws will not change significantly in Canada and the U.S.; that more small to medium private and public companies will continue to require access to alternative sources of capital; that the Company will have the ability to raise required equity and/or debt financing on acceptable terms; and that the Company will have sufficient free cash flow to pay dividends. The Company has also assumed that access to the capital markets will remain relatively stable, that the capital markets will perform with normal levels of volatility and that the Canadian dollar will not have a high amount of volatility relative to the U.S. dollar. In determining expectations for economic growth, the Company primarily considers historical economic data provided by the Canadian and U.S. governments and their agencies. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements.
The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this PRESS RELEASE are made as of the date of this PRESS RELEASE, and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward- looking information and statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
