On 13 December 2005 the boards of Civica plc ('Civica') and Comino Group plc ('Comino') announced that they had reached agreement on the terms of a recommended cash offer to be made by Investec on behalf of Civica for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Comino. The Offer continues to be recommended by the Comino Board.

On 27 January 2006 Civica announced that the Offer had been declared unconditional as to acceptances but that it remained subject to the other conditions contained in Part A of Appendix 1 to the document containing the Offer which was posted to Comino Shareholders on 20 December 2005 (the 'Offer Document').

Civica is pleased to announce that all of the conditions to the Offer, including the condition relating to Admission, have now been satisfied or waived and, accordingly, that the Offer is unconditional in all respects. The Offer will remain open for acceptances until further notice.

The Placing Shares have now been admitted to trading on AIM. Dealings in the Placing Shares commenced today.

As at 1.00 p.m. yesterday, 31 January 2006, Civica had received valid acceptances in respect of a total of 13,593,864 Comino Shares representing in total approximately 96.70 per cent. of Comino's issued share capital.

Full press release can be downloaded here...