WANdisco raises £19m in equity placing
SOFTWARE group WANdisco has raised £19m in an equity placing.
Earlier today the business, which is based in Sheffield and Silicon Valley, California, announced a placing of two million shares to accelerate its growth plans.
In a subsequent stock market statement the AIM-listed firm said it had placed the shares with institutional investors at 950p, a 7.8% discount to the mid-market closing price yesterday.
The placing shares represent approximately 9.3% of WANdisco’s issued share capital prior to the fundraising.
Chief executive David Richards said: “I am hugely encouraged by the significant level of support we have received from our existing shareholders, and from those new institutions which have today chosen to participate in our growth story.
“The funds raised today permit us to continue with even greater conviction and at a faster speed along our strategic path. We will work from here to capitalise on the multiple opportunities for growth open to us, building further upon the clear lead we have in ALM [application lifecycle management] and the exciting first-mover advantage we have in the rapidly evolving big data space.”
WANdisco specialises in software which allow its clients to store and share huge amounts of data. It is also involved in ALM which is the capability to integrate, co-ordinate and manage the different phases of the software delivery process.
The company also announced its half year results today which showed a big rise in deferred revenue following a series of multi-year deals with customers.
It had a deferred revenue account of $8.96m at June 30, up from $4.9m the same time last year while revenue rose from $2.9m to $3.5m, an increase of 20.2%. It said its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) loss of $3.3m reflected the investment being made in both the ALM and big data markets.
DLA Piper advised WANdisco on the £19m placing. The DLA Piper team acting on the transaction was led by Jon Kenworthy, a partner in the corporate practice who has particular expertise in initial and secondary public equity offerings. Jon worked alongside partner Rob McKie, also in corporate.
