Vertu Motors has raised £35 million through a share placing to fund future acquisitions.
A total of 56 million new ordinary shares have been placed at 62.5 pence per share, a discount of around 5.9% to the average of the closing price of Vertu’s existing shares over the 30 days to March 8.
Robert Forrester, Vertu chief executive, said: “I would like to thank our existing and new shareholders for the faith they have put in the Vertu team and look forward to updating shareholders on our progress in the months ahead.”
The placing shares will represent approximately 16.4% of the existing shares and approximately 14.1% of the enlarged share capital.
£300,000 of the total has come from Vertu’s board directors, who’ve increased their combined shareholdings by 480,000 shares.
Chairman Peter Jones has invested £175,000 in taking 280,000 shares in the placing, while chief executive Robert Forrester has invested £50,000 to take 80,000.
An award-winning journalist and editor, with two decades of experience covering the motor retail industry, and accredited by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) plus the National Council for the Training of Journalist (NCTJ)
As editor of AM since 2016, Tim is responsible for its media content, planning and production across AM's multiple channels, including the website, digital reports, webinars, social media and the editorial content of AM's events, Automotive Management Live and the AM Awards. His focus is on interviewing senior leaders of franchised dealer groups and motor manufacturer national sales companies to examine latest developments in UK motor retail.
Jonti Jones - 09/03/2016 16:50
I worry yet again as a shareholder about a strategy that started off buying underperforming dealerships and now seems to be about growing at any price. I am also now beginning to worry about placing shares rather than doing this through loans when debt financing is so cheap. By placing new shares my holding is being diluted, others - especially senior managers - are gaining more equity. Do please think about shareholders, raise finance in the right way and do not simply look to buy dealerships for the sake of it. Growing sales is easy, doing so profitably is hard. I will keep the faith, but I guess like many shareholders, more of this and I may change my mind.