Aveva unveils £2.84bn rights issue for OSIsoft deal

Aveva has announced a £2.84bn rights issue to partly fund its acquisition of US software group OSIsoft.

The FTSE 100 industrial software company agreed to buy the real-time data software maker in August for $5bn (£3.8bn). It said at the time it would raise $3.5bn in a rights issue to fund the deal with the rest to come from cash reserves and debt.

Aveva will issue new shares priced at £22.55 each. For every nine existing Aveva shares a shareholder will be entitled to seven rights issue shares.

The rights issue price is a discount of 32.2% to the theoretical ex-rights issue price of £33.28 based on Aveva's closing share price on 5 November. Schneider Electric, which owns about 60% of Aveva's shares, has committed to support the rights issue and take up all its shares.

The acquisition and rights issue require shareholder approval at a general meeting on 24 November and the new shares are expected to start trading the next day.

Aveva agreed a £250m credit facility with its banks and a $900m term loan from Scheider in August to help fund the OSIsoft acquisition. The company said regulatory and competition approvals were on track for the deal to complete. It is buying the US company to strengthen its position in industrial software.