Versarien plc (LON:VRS), the advanced materials group, announced on 3 November 2017 the launch of a fundraising comprising a placing by WH Ireland (the “Placing”) in conjunction with an offer via PrimaryBid (the “Offer”) (together the “Fundraising”) to raise approximately £1.2 million at 18p per new ordinary share of 1p each in the Company (“New Ordinary Shares”).
The Company is delighted to announce that it has successfully completed the Fundraising. The Fundraising received a very strong response and was oversubscribed. The Offer was on a “first come, first served” basis and was closed early at 5.55 p.m. on 3 November 2017, with the Fundraising having already been over twice oversubscribed by that time. The Company has therefore decided to increase the size of the Fundraising in order to meet this demand. The Company will therefore issue and allot a total of 16,144,707 New Ordinary Shares to satisfy the Fundraising. The gross proceeds of the Fundraising, before expenses, are £2,906,047.26
The Company will use the proceeds of the Fundraising to purchase capital equipment and provide working capital to enable the various existing and prospective graphene related collaborations with global OEMs to be progressed. The intended capital equipment purchases are designed to enable the Company to increase the production capacity of its proprietary Nanene few layer graphene nano-platelets by a factor of approximately ten.
Miton Asset Management (“Miton”), a substantial shareholder in the Company, has subscribed for 1,194,444 New Ordinary Shares in the Fundraising. Its subscription constitutes a related party transactions under the AIM Rules as Miton currently holds more than 10% of the existing ordinary shares and is therefore a “substantial shareholder” under the AIM Rules. The Directors, all of whom are independent for the purposes of this transaction, consider, having consulted with WH Ireland, the Company’s nominated adviser, that the terms of Miton’s subscription are fair and reasonable insofar as the Company’s shareholders are concerned.
Application will be made to the London Stock Exchange for the New Ordinary Shares, which will rank pari passu with the Company’s existing Ordinary Shares, to be admitted to trading on AIM. Dealings in the New Ordinary Shares are expected to commence at 8.00 a.m. on 10 November 2017.
Neill Ricketts, Chief Executive Officer of Versarien Plc, commented: “We are delighted with the support we have received for the Fundraising from both institutional and private shareholders. The Offer through PrimaryBid has enabled private shareholders to participate on the same terms as the institutions.
“As I stated in our Trading Update on 3 November, we are delighted with the progress that the Group is making, particularly in our graphene related activities, where we are seeing an accelerating level of interest from multinational companies in a variety of sectors wishing to collaborate with Versarien.
“The funds raised will allow us to further the growth of our graphene business through the purchase of capital equipment to significantly scale up our graphene production and provide working capital for the collaborations we are entering into with global OEM’s.
“We look forward to making further announcements regarding these collaborations in due course and provide further updates at the time of the release of our interim results on 29 November 2017.”
Total Voting Rights
Following the issue of the New Ordinary Shares, the Company will have 147,475,409 ordinary shares of 1p each in issue. No ordinary shares are held in treasury. The figure of 147,475,409 may be used by the Company’s shareholders 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, the Company under the Financial Conduct Authority’s Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.
