Stobart fundraising fails to ignite investors
ONLY a quarter of the new shares made available by logistics group Stobart in a £120m fundraising have been taken up by investors.
Last month the Warrington group unveiled plans to raise £115m after expenses with the issue of 77 million new shares at 155p, up 4.6% on the closing price on April 20.
Existing shareholders were entitled to seven shares for every 24 they already hold.
In a statement to the stock market the group said it had received valid acceptances for 19.7 million shares, or 25.5% of those on offer.
“The 57,610,782 open offer shares not applied for by qualifying Stobart shareholders under the open offer will be taken up by placees under the terms of the placing agreement,” said the group.
The offer has not been underwritten but Stobart’s broker, Cenkos, pre-placed all of the shares with institutional investors, subject to take-up from other shareholders. Invesco Asset Management took 80% or 61.8 million.
Stobart has said the extra cash will give it the “firepower” to invest in areas such as energy, property and its airports business. Some £25m is earmarked for London Southend Airport and Carlisle Lake District Airport, while £32m will be spent on a biomass facility in Widnes and developments at the Mersey Multimodal Gateway.
Last week the group hit out at an “entirely false” story in the Daily Telegraph claiming the Financial Services Authority (FSA) was looking into the proposed acquisition by the group of a property business owned by chief executive Andrew Tinkler. The deal was announced when the group unveiled its placing and open offer on April 21.
