Severfield-Rowen successful with rights issue

STRUCTURAL steel group Severfield-Rowen said that shares from its new rights issue will start trading today.

The North Yorkshire-based group announced the launch of a £48m rights issue to reduce its borrowings in February.

The fully underwritten rights issues, which has seen 194.5m new shares issued, has raised £47.9m, £44.8m after expenses.

It saw seven new shares issued for every three, priced at 23p, a discount of 67.8% to the closing share price of 71.5p the day before the announcement.

More than 93% of the new shares were taken up by existing shareholders while underwriter Jefferies International will now aim to secure subscribers for the remainder.

The move was announced following operating losses of £18.2m in the year to December 31, compared to profits of £14.2m the previous year.

Revenues for the year were down to £256.6m from £267.8m previously.