NewRiver raises £225m in capital raising

Convenience-led UK retail and leisure property specialist NewRiver REIT confirmed the results of its £225m capital raising on Tuesday, which it had initially announced on 15 June.

The FTSE 250 firm had said at the time of the first announcement that it planned to raise gross proceeds of £225m through the issue of 45,474,313 form placing shares and 21,689,866 open offer shares, each at an issue price of 335p per new ordinary share.

It said the open offer shares were conditionally placed with institutional investors at the placing price, subject to clawback to satisfy valid applications by qualifying shareholders, while the firm placing shares were not subject to clawback and were not part of the open offer.

The open offer closed for acceptance at 1100 BST on 3 July, with NewRiver confirming on Tuesday that it received valid acceptances for 35,948,520 new ordinary shares from qualifying shareholders under the open offer and the excess application facility.

That represented about 166% of the open offer shares offered.

In total, the company said 12,229,692 new ordinary shares would be allotted and issued under the open offer, and 9,460,175 would be done so under the excess application facility.

NewRiver said the firm placing and open offer remained conditional on the approval of shareholders at a general meeting being held later on Tuesday, among other things.

"Our convenience-led, community-focused strategy has been welcomed and endorsed by the market and we are grateful to our new and existing shareholders for supporting this important transaction,” said chief executive David Lockhart.

“Since the capital raising was announced on 15 June, NewRiver has exchanged conditional contracts to acquire the remaining 50% share in its BRAVO Joint Ventures from subsidiaries of BRAVO II and so is off to a good start in deploying the capital raised promptly and effectively.”