Hotel Chocolat raises £55m in IPO

Hotel Chocolat achieved a £167m valuation in its initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange.

The British chocolate supplier raised £55.5m after placing 8,108,108 new and 29,398,471 existing ordinary shares of 0.1p each at a value of 148p per share.

Founders Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris, who hold 66.6% of the issued share capital, will receive £20m each from the admission to AIM.

"Today is a significant moment in the development of Hotel Chocolat and we are delighted to have received such strong demand from investors,” Thirwell said.

“ We have clear plans to invest further in our British chocolate manufacturing operations, in new stores and in our digital offering.”

The company, which has 81 shops in the UK, said it will use £12m of the proceeds to grow the business with new shop openings and improvements to its website.