EQTEC raises £0.5m to help fund biomass project

EQTEC announced on Thursday that it raised £0.49m before expenses through a placing of 7,461,538 new ordinary shares at a price of 6.5p per share.

The AIM-traded company said it planned to use the net proceeds from the placing primarily in continuing the development of the Newry Biomass project, including advancing some of the initial work streams involved in re-powering the plant such as engineering, design and preliminary mechanical and electrical works.

It said the proceeds would also be used for continuing investment in its pipeline of projects.

In addition, the company said it also agreed with its major shareholder EBIOSS Energy AD to convert an amount of €0.34m, being equal to the outstanding balance of capital plus accrued interest due under the loan facility dated 8 January 2016 - which was amended on 12 December 2016 - into 4,491,197 new ordinary shares at a conversion price of 6.5p per share.

As a result, following the conversion, the obligation to repay the amounts drawn to date under the loan facility plus accrued interest will be deemed to have been satisfied in full.

A further €0.48m was still available to be drawn down under the loan facility, EQTEC’s board confirmed.

“Following admission, EBIOSS will be interested in 92,701,197 ordinary shares, equating to 50.03% of the then enlarged share capital of the company,” EQTEC’s board explained in a statement.