Sosandar to generate £4.5m in fundraise to accelerate omni-channel strategy
Sosandar, the Cheshire-based online fashion brand, is aiming to raise around £4.5m in share placings to accelerate its growth plans.
The business, which this week, announced the passing of its non-executive chairman, Bill Murray, said it will use the proceeds to accelerate the execution of its omni-channel strategy through further investment in stock, enabling increased provision of its product range in-store with third party partners including Sainsbury’s from autumn/winter 2023 onwards.
The net proceeds of the placing will also create further balance sheet headroom to fast track other growth initiatives as well as enable accelerated investment in the company’s proven customer acquisition model.
The proposed placing comprises not less than 18,181,818 new ordinary shares of 0.1p each, through an accelerated bookbuild at a price of 22p per ordinary share to raise minimum gross proceeds of approximately £4m. Afer expenses this is expected to amount to £3.7m.
In addition to the placing, the company intends to carry out a separate offer of up to 2,272,727 new ordinary shares at the issue price via the BookBuild Platform to raise further gross proceeds of up to approximately £500,000 to provide existing retail shareholders in the UK with an opportunity to participate in Sosandar’s fundraising plans.
The fundraise is not underwritten.
Tha placing is expected to conclude today (February 8), while the retail offer, for existing shareholders, will be launched tomorrow, and the result announced on February 17.
As announced in the company’s trading update released on January 10, 2023, Sosandar reported strong revenue growth across all sales channels, with a new record quarter for third party partners, resulting in another profitable quarter for the group following being profitable in both the second half of fiscal year 2022 and the first half of 2023.
The company then announced, on January 23, a new third party agreement with J Sainsbury, whereby Sosandar will sell a curated collection of its products through Sainsbury’s, initially online only with selected stores planned later in 2023. These partnerships, which include the company’s first in-store presence, allow Sosandar to become a true omni-channel retailer.
As such, the company, headed by co-CEO’s Ali Hall and Julie Lavington, said it is seeking to raise additional funding to capitalise on the opportunities in its markets and accelerate its future growth.
