Braveheart raises £2.5m for development at Paraytec

The AIM-traded firm said the funds were being raised in a placing of 13,888,889 new shares at a price of 18p each.

It said the placing shares would represent around 26.59% of its enlarged issued share capital.

The placing share price was a discount of about 20.88% to the closing mid-market share price of an existing share on 12 August.

Braveheart said it had used its existing authority to issue new shares for cash on a non-pre-emptive basis.

Chief executive officer Trevor Brown subscribed for 3,500,000 placing shares, and Free Association Books - a company connected to Brown - subscribed for 4,500,000 shares.

Executive director Vivian Hallam, meanwhile, subscribed for 833,333 shares in the placing.

Braveheart said it would use the net proceeds of £2.42m to enable it to accelerate the development of Paraytec's Covid-19 testing instrument, by taking direct control of the final design and engineering packages.

At the same time, Paraytec would seek partners for licensing and development, or a potential sale.

The board said it believed that strategy should enable Paraytec to deliver a finished product to market directly if it failed to find a satisfactory deal with a third party.

“We are delighted to have been able to raise this extra funding which will enable Paraytec to pursue its new strategy,” said Trevor Brown.

At 0921 BST, shares in Braveheart Investment Group were up 5.49% at 24p.