# INTERVIEW: Versarien plc Successful Fundraising allows significant scale up of manufacturing and marketing

- Link: https://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/versarien-plc-successful-fundraising-allows-significant-scale-manufacturing-marketing/412724945
- Published: 2017-03-06T07:35:15+00:00
- Author: Giles Arbor

**Versarien plc** (LON:VRS), the advanced materials group, announced on 3 March 
2017 the launch of a fundraising comprising a placing by **WH Ireland Group Plc**(
[LON:WHI](https://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/broker/wh-ireland)) in conjunction
with an offer via PrimaryBid to raise approximately £1 million at 15p per new ordinary
share.

CEO Neill Ricketts caught up with DirectorsTalk to discuss the successful close 
of a fund-raise. Neill explains what was done and who supported the raise, what 
the proceeds will be used for and what we can expect from the company in the coming
months.

The Company was today delighted to announce that it has successfully completed the
Fundraising. The Fundraising received a very strong response from private and institutional
investors, and the Fundraising was oversubscribed. The Offer was on a “first come,
first served” basis and was closed early at 7.00 p.m. on 4 March 2017, with the 
Fundraising having already been approximately 50% oversubscribed by that time. The
Company has therefore decided to increase the size of the Fundraising in order to
meet this demand. The Company will therefore issue and allot a total of 10,036,699
new ordinary shares (“New Ordinary Shares”) to satisfy the Fundraising. The gross
proceeds of the Fundraising are £1,505,504.85.

**Henderson Global Investors** and **Miton Group Plc**, each of whom are substantial
shareholders in the Company, have subscribed for 1,333,333 and 1,333,334 new ordinary
shares respectively in the Fundraising. Their subscriptions constitute a related
party transactions under the AIM Rules as each currently holds more than 10% of 
the existing ordinary shares and is therefore a “substantial shareholder” under 
the AIM Rules. The Directors, all of whom are independent for the purposes of this
transaction, consider, having consulted with WH Ireland Plc, the Company’s nominated
adviser, that the terms of Henderson’s and Miton’s subscriptions are fair and reasonable
insofar as the Shareholders are concerned.

Application will be made to the London Stock Exchange for the New Ordinary Shares,
which rank pari passu with the Company’s existing Ordinary Shares, to be admitted
to trading on AIM. Dealings are expected to commence at 8.00 a.m. on 10 March 2017.

> **Neill Ricketts, Chief Executive Officer of Versarien, commented:** “We are delighted
> with the support we have received from both existing and new institutional and
> private investors for the Fundraising. In particular we are delighted with the
> support we have received from private investors through PrimaryBid and to have
> the opportunity to increase the size of the Fundraising to satisfy some of that
> demand.
> “The funds raised will allow us to significantly scale up both our graphene manufacturing
> capabilities and our marketing efforts to take advantage of the substantial commercial
> opportunities we are seeing. Versarien is at the forefront of the commercialisation
> of graphene and the Fundraising will allow us to more widely market our recently
> launched graphene brand, Nanene, and increase the resources available to the other
> graphene projects we are working on. We look forward to these funds allowing us
> to accelerate the use of graphene in a variety of commercial applications.”

Total Voting Rights

Following the issue of the New Ordinary Shares, the Company will have 131,330,702
ordinary shares of 1p each in issue. No ordinary shares are held in treasury. The
figure of 131,330,702 may be used by the Company’s shareholders as the denominator
for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify
their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the Financial
Conduct Authority’s Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

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