Harworth's shares up after placing to fund strategic land-bank expansion

Harworth Group saw its shares rise more than 1% after raising gross proceeds of about £27.8m in a placing of 29.2m shares at 95p apiece, with net proceeds primarily going to accelerate the continued expansion of the company's strategic land bank.

Harworth said it recently entered into four option agreements to acquire, in aggregate, about 200 acres of strategic land, the master plans for which were expected to deliver in total more than 1500 residential plots and 600,000 sq ft of new commercial space.

It required about £19.2m to exercise the options and fund the first three years of expenditure on planning, remediation and infrastructure works, and further site assembly.

Assuming the option agreements were exercised following successful due diligence, Harworth's strategic land bank would rise to about 2750 acres, including 10,429 consented residential plots and about 10.4m consented sq ft of commercial space.

At 10.31am, shares in Harworth were up 1.04% to 97.5p each.