Lloyd’s of London investment and underwriting vehicle Helios has successfully raised approximately £18.35 million via its previously announced share offering.
Last month, Helios announced that it was targeting a £20 million capital raise to take advantage of hardening market conditions.
Now completed, the transaction saw Helios issue 9,497,850 New Ordinary Shares for a price of £1.20 per share, representing a 4% premium to the closing price of £1.15 per share on October 30th.
The company now plans to carry out an open offer to raise gross proceeds of up to an additional £1.66 million, subject to shareholder approval.
In addition, Helios has entered into acquisition agreements to acquire four LLVs for a total consideration of £9.32 million.
The LLVs – NJH, L084, Nameco 510 and Nameco 544 – will be acquired using £6.95 million to be satisfied by the issue of consideration shares, and £2.37 million in cash, of which £1.17 will be retain to repay a loan due to NJH by Upperton, which is owned by Helios Chief Executive Nigel Hanbury.
As a result of Hanbury’s indirect beneficial ownership of NJH, his interest in L084, and Finance Director Arthur Manners’ direct shareholding of Nameco 510, these acquisitions also remain subject to approval.
“I am pleased to announce a successful fundraising and the proposed acquisitions,” said Hanbury.
“The fundraising will enable us to take advantage of the hardening market in order to fund the increase in capacity from pre-emptions, to increase the Company’s retained capacity by an expected 137 per cent to £50 million for the 2021 year of account, and to participate in capacity auctions,” he explained.
“On behalf of the Board I wish to thank our investors, new and existing, for their support. We now look forward to working with our new colleagues and partners to execute our strategy, which we are confident will be value enhancing for shareholders.”
