Online fashion firm raises £7m to drive continued growth
Online fashion business Sosandar has raised £7m, before expenses, through a conditional institutional placing of new ordinary shares.
The AIM-listed women’s fashion site said the placing of 22,669,384 new ordinary shares was “significantly oversubscribed by new and existing shareholders”.
A further placing of 23,997,316 shares is conditional on shareholder approval.
Wilmslow-based Sosandar was founded by two former fashion journalists, Ali Hall and Julie Lavington.
The new shares were priced at 15p per share, a 3.4% premium to the closing mid-market price per ordinary share on July 10, the last dealing day prior to the announcement of the placing.
Co-chief executives Ali Hall and Julie Lavington said: “We are very pleased to have successfully raised £7m through a significantly oversubscribed placing, with both new and existing shareholders showing their support for the business and our growth plans.
“Our strong financial performance and high level of repeat orders demonstrates the demand for our products and loyalty of our existing customer base.
“We have considerable momentum in the business which we are excited to build on going forward.”
They added: “Several opportunities are in the pipeline which will further improve the Sosandar shopping experience and build awareness of the brand to new customers.
“We look forward to updating all shareholders on our progress in due course.”
The company announced its annual financial results on July 3, which revealed a 228% increase in revenue and a 224% growth in orders. It said, given the continued strong performance of the company, the board believes it is appropriate to raise additional equity to help support and accelerate further growth.
Funds from the placing will be used to enable the company to pursue new opportunities. It said it is in discussions to sell on third party sites, but to work with them the company expects it would need to stock up on selected lines and would only be paid in arrears.
The placing will also assist in the expansion of new supplier relationships and reduce the risk of having to rely on supplier credit to fund future growth, particularly given the current supplier credit backdrop.
Sosandar also intends to further widen its product range to better serve its target consumers’ fashion needs, while it plans further expenditure on new customer acquisition, which the board believes will contribute to future revenue growth given the company’s current repeat order performance.
In the first quarter of financial year 2020, the company’s repeat orders increased 122% year-on-year.
