Wey Education Plc (LON:WEY) Chairman David Massie talks to DirectorsTalk about it’s recent fundraise and a possible acquisition. David expands on the fundraising, explains why the price was discounted and no open offer, what the funds will be used for, further areas of marketing, the types of marketing we can expect and what other news we can expect in the coming months.
Further to the accelerated bookbuilding process announced earlier today, Wey Education is pleased to announce that it has raised gross proceeds of £5 million through a significantly oversubscribed and scaled back placing (the “Placing”) with institutional and other investors of 22,727,273 new ordinary shares (the “New Ordinary Shares”) at a price of 22 pence per Placing Share (the “Placing Price”). The Placing Price represents a discount of 33.3 per cent. to the closing price on 14 November 2017, the last trading day prior to this announcement, and a discount of approximately 7.1 per cent. to the average closing price of the last 30 trading days. The New Ordinary Shares will represent approximately 18 per cent. of the Enlarged Issued Share Capital on Admission (assuming no other issuance of ordinary shares prior to Admission).
The proceeds of the Placing will provide additional working capital resources to the Group and subject to completion of the acquisition, fund the consideration earn-out (if any) in respect of the possible acquisition detailed in the Company’s earlier announcement today. A further announcement will be made about such in due course.
Application for admission to trading on AIM for the 22,727,273 New Ordinary Shares being issued pursuant to the Placing has been made and Admission is expected to take place on 20 November 2017. The New Ordinary Shares will rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares in issue.
In accordance with the provisions of the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority, the Company confirms that, following the Placing, its issued share capital will comprise 126,270,507 Ordinary Shares of 1 pence each. All of these Ordinary Shares have equal voting rights and none of the Ordinary Shares are held in Treasury. The total number of voting rights in the Company will therefore be 126,270,507 on Admission.
Wey Education’s Chairman, David Massie, said: “We are very happy to have concluded this placing and to have attracted a number of significant institutional investors who we hope and trust will support the Company in the long term as we pursue our plan to build Wey into a leading international educational services provider. The additional working capital provides the board with the confidence to pursue a number of new initiatives particularly regarding increased marketing in the UK and overseas, which we hope will generate substantial returns over the medium term. Negotiations regarding the proposed acquisition continue and we will make a further announcement regarding such in due course.”