Deltex stumbles after fundraising announcement

Shares in haemodynamic management firm Deltex Medical Group fell as much as 12% during early trading on Tuesday morning after the group announced its intention to undertake a £1m equity placing.

Deltex revealed that the almost-£1.1m accelerated bookbuild would be launched at a minimum price of 1.25p, with certain other investors proposing to invest £685,000 in the company by way of a subscription at the issue price.

The company intended to provide all qualifying participants with the opportunity to subscribe for new ordinary shares at the issue price in order to raise up £350,000 before expenses with Deltex planning to use the proceeds of the placing and subscription to strengthen its balance sheet, as well as being put aside for general capital purposes.

Separately, the holders of loan notes issued by the company in 2016 agreed to defer the redemption date of 26 February 2019 for a further two years and as a result, the company agreed to reduce the conversion price from 6p to 4p to reflect the dilutive effect of the capital raisings, increasing the maximum number of ordinary shares to be issued under the loan notes from 18.75m to 27.5m.

After having reduced its cash consumption in 2017 by £1m from £2.3m in 2016 thanks to margin improvements and overhead reductions, Deltex hoped to become operating cash positive through a combination of cost reductions and revenue growth.

As of 0920 GMT, shares had slipped 9.84% to 1.40p.