22nd Feb 2019 14:31
LONDON (Alliance News) - Haydale Graphene Industries PLC on Friday afternoon said it has issued a higher than anticipated number ordinary shares in the previously announced capital raise.
The company issued 88.1 million new ordinary shares to raise around GBP3.8 million and 11.9 million subscription shares to raise approximately GBP200,000. It also expects to raise further GBP4 million via a 200 million share open offer at the same price.
Haydale Graphene, which develops additives to create enhanced materials like carbon fibre and silicon carbide, earlier on Friday said it would place 190 million new ordinary shares at 2p per share to raise GBP3.8 million to fund general working capital, restructuring costs, and and equipment investments.
The share issue price represents a discount of around 83% to the closing price of 11.88p on Thursday. Shares in the company were trading 78% lower at 2.60 pence each in Friday afternoon trade.
Following shareholder approval for the fundraising, the company's Chief Operating Officer Keith Broadbent will move to the chief executive role.
The company on Wednesday confirmed speculation regarding the equity placing and said it was in talks with investors regarding a "materially" discounted share issue.
In December, Haydale agreed a new GBP750,000 16-month loan with the Development Bank of Wales and raised GBP250,000 via a share subscription at 20p a share.
The fundraise was announced along with a widened interim pretax loss due to a 20% fall in revenue.
For the six months to 2018-end, the company recorded a pretax loss of GBP3.5 million compared with a GBP2.7 million loss in the year ago period, on revenue of GBP1.6 million from GBP2.0 million.
Administrative costs increased to GBP4.7 million from GBP4.3 million.
"We will continue to implement the management actions already started to re-set the cost base and consolidate the group's position over the next six months with our focus on SiC, functionalised inks and graphene composites. There will be a marginal impact on sales in the current financial year as the changes are bedded in," said Interim Executive Chair David Banks.
"However, we are recruiting specific sales personnel to deliver on our expected growth over the medium term without adding to the cost base, as we move from Research & Development to commercial sales. We are looking to leverage our significant investment made in our US business to create a stable platform for the group to enable us to achieve our plan to profitability," Banks added.
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