Young’s raises £88.4m in equity issue

Young’s has raised gross proceeds of £88.4m through an equity issue.

Announced yesterday, the London-based pubco launched the capital raise of up to 19.9% of its share capital through a placing to provide it “with the financial flexibility to drive its continued success and faster growth.”

Conducted through an accelerated bookbuild, the placing raised gross proceeds of approximately £85.5m, with an additional £2.7m raised via a retail offer.

The placing shares, retail shares and subscription shares represent in aggregate approximately 19.2% of the total existing issues ordinary share capital of Young’s prior to the placing.

Following Admission, the total number of shares in issue in Young’s will be 34,389,940 A ordinary shares and 24,070,755 non-voting ordinary shares.

The group has said that net proceeds will be used to restart investment in the Young’s estate, strengthen its balance sheet and pursue opportunistic acquisitions.