Company Announcements

13 July 2022

Vianet Group plc

("Vianet" or the "Group")

Directorate Changes

Vianet Group plc (AIM: VNET), the international provider of actionable data and business insight through devices connected to its Internet of Things platform ("IOT") confirms that, as notified in the Company's full year results and following the Company's AGM to be held later today, Chris Williams will step down from the Board and that Stella Panu will be appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director of the Group with effect from 14 July 2022 and will chair the Company's Audit Committee.

Stella was a founding Partner of Maven Capital Partner UK LLP ("Maven"), an investment management company, created after a management buyout of the private equity business of Aberdeen Asset Management plc ("AAM") in 2009, and led the business through to its sale in July 2021.  Maven has a focus on venture growth and innovation and during her time at Maven, Stella led the AIM Investment team and was the lead investor in private equity across Maven. Having previously been at AAM and Seymour Pierce Ltd and had seats on numerous company boards, Stella brings with her a wealth of private equity M&A and AIM experience.

Stella has also previously worked for Pricewaterhouse Coopers, The World Bank, and Raifessen Investment Fund and holds a degree in Economics and an MA in Applied Economics and Statistics.

James Dickson, Chairman, said:

"Firstly, I'd like to extend my thanks to Chris on behalf of myself and the executive team at Vianet for his advice, support and input into the business over many years. The business has evolved significantly over his time with us and in the last couple of years managed its way through significant challenges that global markets have experienced.  I wish Chris all the very best for the future.

"I am delighted that we have appointed Stella as a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit Committee. Her financial background, City experience, combined with expertise across finance, strategy, and M&A activity will be invaluable to the Board and the Executive team as we continue to focus on delivering our growth strategy."

Regulatory disclosures

In accordance with Schedule 2(g) of the AIM Rules for Companies, Stella Panu, aged 48, holds or has held the following directorships or partnerships in the past five years.

* dormant companies

In conjunction with her role at Maven, Stella is or has been a director of several cash shells. Before 2016, venture capital trusts ("VCT"), of which Maven manages numerous, were permitted to invest in cash shells whereby respective investments were considered to be qualifying investments for the purposes of VCT.  These cash shells were required to make an acquisition of a trading business within 2 years.  If such an investment wasn't completed within the 2-year time frame then the cash shell was required to return cash/investment to respective shareholders and the entity placed into a voluntary liquidation.  Such companies, which Stella was a director at such time or in the 12 months preceding such event, are as follows:

Briard Holdings Limited

Metropol Communications Limited

Assecurare Limited

Manor Retailing Limited

Dunning Capital Limited

Stella was previously a director of Dalgen (No. 1148) Limited.  This company was one of Maven's VCT investments.  The trading assets were sold to an acquiror in an asset sale and purchase transaction.  Following the sale of the assets, the company was placed into voluntary liquidation and was dissolved on 7 June 2019.  There were no outstanding amounts owed to creditors.

Stella was previously director of Space Student Living Limited, a company in which Maven was invested. The Company was placed into liquidation on 12 December 2012 and subsequently dissolved on 9 December 2016.  There were no amounts outstanding to creditors.

Stella was previously a director of Wey Bridging Ltd from 25 January 2010 to 26 November 2010.  The company was placed into liquidation via a creditor's voluntary liquidation on 2 November 2011. There were no amounts outstanding to creditors.

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About Vianet

Vianet Group is a leading provider of actionable management information and business insight created through combining data from our smart Internet of Things ('IOT') solutions and external information sources.

Since Admission to AIM in 2006, the Group has grown from its core beer monitoring business both organically and through strategic acquisitions to widen its offering and develop new businesses, especially in vending telemetry and contactless payment solutions particularly for the premium coffee sector.

Servicing over 300 customers across the world and rendering live data to our IOT platform from over 250,000 connected machines daily, Vianet is one of the largest business to business (b2b) connected solutions providers in Europe with established long-term relationships with blue chip customers and growing recurring revenues which are over 85% of our total revenues.

In our Smart Machines division, we connect a single data gathering device with its own on-board communication capability to a customer's asset or system. The device then sends data back via our IOT platform to cloud based servers. The technology was originally developed for automated retailing machines; however, the flexibility and functionality of the device means the technology can be applied to any machine which has the capability to output data. The device is also used to connect our contactless payment solution and communicate payment terms to our cloud-based payment services providers where that application is also required.

The Smart Zones division is where we connect multiple data gathering devices into one or more systems or assets with the data from those devices being communicated back to our IOT platform and cloud-based servers via a single 3G communications hub. The technology was originally developed for flow monitoring devices, temperature sensors, and asset management in drinks retailing but any data gathering device with a digital output could be connected to the communications hub where required such as gaming machines, utilities management and EPOS.

For further information, please visit www.vianetplc.com