GB Group plunges after discounted placing

GB Group tumbled on Friday after the digital identity software company raised around £300m in a discounted placing to help fund the acquisition of US identity verification business Acuant for $736m (£547m).

The company placed just over 41m new shares at 725p each, which is a discount of 17% to the closing share price on Thursday.

GB said the deal "brings together two of the leaders in the global digital identity market", with combined revenues of around £265m.

Chief executive Chris Clark said: "We are delighted to announce the acquisition of Acuant. This is a business that we have worked with - and admired - for many years. The combination of our two businesses is a complementary and powerful one. Together, we are creating a global leader in identity verification as well as strengthening our capability to capitalise on the adjacent, emerging and fast growing identify fraud market.

"The US is the largest and most strategic market for location, identity and fraud services. The combination of GBG and Acuant accelerates our share in this market, increasing scale, customer base and introducing us to new and exciting sectors. As importantly, it also strengthens the breadth of our technology portfolio which we can use to support our current customers in new ways in growth geographies such as APAC and Europe, where we already have a strong footprint."

At 1310 GMT, the shares were down 12% at 770.50p.