Property investors raise the roof with £27.8m placing

Property investors Harworth Group are fundraising via a share placing for £27.8m to support its growth.

The brownfield developer wants to accelerate the growth of its land portfolio.

It is placing 29.2m shares at a price of 95p per placing share which it hopes will raise proceeds of around £27.8m.

Rotherham-based Harworth, which also has offices in Manchester, recently option agreements to acquire 200 acres of land.

The masterplans for these plots are expected to deliver more than 1,500 residential plots and 600,000 sq. ft. of new commercial space

The company said it required £19.2m to fund the exercise of options and the first three years of expenditure on planning, remediation and infrastructure works, and further site assembly.

Another four land opportunities are in negotiation, which would see Harworth acquire up to 407 acres for residential and commercial development, which would require £15.5m.

It recently sold a major plot of land to Avant Homes for 61 houses at its Waverley site, the region’s largest brownfield development.

Owen Michaelson, Harworth chief executive commented: “An important part of our strategy is to replenish our land and property portfolio, both by securing new recurring income streams and to grow and expand our strategic land bank, which is fundamental to us continuing to deliver value to our shareholders.

“While we have made good progress in the past two years in securing valuable acquisition opportunities, today’s Placing enables us to accelerate our acquisition strategy through the funding of the purchase of, and investment in, further sites to support the long term growth prospects of the business.”

Investec and Canaccord Genuity are acting as joint bookrunners and joint brokers to the Placing.