Lords Group announces 'oversubscribed' placing, plans to list on AIM
UK building materials distributor Lords Group announced that a placing of shares ahead of its proposed admission to trading on AIM was oversubscribed amid "strong" support from institutional investors.
Lords Group chief executive officer, Shanker Patel, said: "We are delighted to announce our plans to join the AIM market. The entire team has worked hard to establish Lords' position as a leading distributor in the UK building materials market, and it is this ability and ambition that will allow us to capitalise on the significant opportunities ahead.
"The [Repairs, Maintenance and Improvement] market in particular has huge potential and is supported by a number of short, medium and longer term growth drivers. We look forward to continuing to grow our business as a publicly quoted company."
The company, 80% of whose business came from the RMI market, said that it had raised £52.0m before expenses, £30.0m of which would be funnelled back into the company with the remainder going to certain existing shareholders.
In parallel, Lords Group announced its proposed admission to trading on AIM in order to raise further funding and thus accelerate its growth, both organically and non-organically.
Shares in the company were expected to begin trading on 20 July with a market capitalisation of about £150.0m based on the placing price of 95.0p per share.
Founded 35 years before, what was still a family business had annual turnover of £288.0m and operated from 33 sites.
Its stated aim was to become a £500m business by 2024.
Between 2016 and 2020 it had completed six acquisitions which had delivered returns on investment of over 20%.