Beazley, the specialist insurer, has completed its previously announced share issuance, raising gross proceeds of roughly £350 million (£337m net) to support organic growth and fund attractive underwriting opportunities, while maintaining a strong balance sheet.
The firm announced yesterday that it was looking to raise £385 million via the placing of 60,959,017 new ordinary shares and a retail share issuance, based on its share price close on November 14th, 2022, of 627.5 pence.
Today, however, Beazley has announced that a total of 60,403,895 placing shares have been placed by JP Morgan and Numis at a price of 575 pence per new ordinary share, while retail investors have subscribed through the PrimaryBid platform for a total 529,036 retail offer shares at the issue price.
Additionally, certain Directors of the firm have participated in the capital raise for an aggregate of 71,386 new ordinary shares at the issue price, which represents a discount of 8% to the closing share price of 625 pence on November 15th, 2022.
So, the new shares have been sold at 575 pence, which is much lower than the original valuation, and seemingly the reason for the capital raise ending up lower than initially expected.
In aggregate, the capital raise of 60,959,017 new ordinary shares represents around 9.9% of the carrier’s issued ordinary share capital and raised gross proceeds of around £350 million, with strong support from existing shareholders.
“The use of proceeds of the Capital Raise is to support organic growth and provide growth capital to fund attractive underwriting opportunities while maintaining a strong balance sheet that can withstand a range of stress scenarios,” says Beazley. “The proceeds of the Capital Raise are not intended to be used for any acquisition or specified capital investment.”
Beazley has sent applications to both the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE), respectively, for the admission of the new ordinary shares to the premium listing segment of the official list of the FCA and to trading on the main market for listed securities of the LSE.
The firm expects admission to become effective on or around 8am on November 18th, 2022.
