Avantium N.V. announces it has raised a total of €70 million through the successful completion of its capital increase by means of a fully underwritten rights offering, for an amount of €50.5 million, and the completion of a €19.5 million institutional upsize offering.
Tom van Aken, Chief Executive Officer of Avantium, comments: “We are very pleased with this successful €70 million capital raise, exceeding the €50 million equity capital that Avantium was initially targeting. This transaction allows us to remain well capitalised until our FDCA Flagship Plant is commercially operational. It also enables us to strengthen our balance sheet and to accelerate our technology licensing strategy. The increased issue size of €70 million, the high exercise percentage of the rights, the commitment of our larger existing shareholders and the entry of new strategic investors reflect an increasing and broadening interest in Avantium. I would like to thank our shareholders for putting their trust in us through their contributions to this capital increase. With their support, we help realising a renewable and circular plastics economy, and create long-term, sustainable value for all our stakeholders.”
Results of the Rights Offering
- The final gross proceeds of the Rights Offering amount to €50.5 million, corresponding to the issuance of 27,018,772 new ordinary shares at an issue price per share of €1.87.
- 24,467,905 new ordinary shares were subscribed through exercise of rights, representing a 90.6% take-up.
- The rump offering of 2,550,867 new ordinary shares was fully subscribed.
Results of the Upsize Offering
In light of the high take-up rate by existing shareholders of Avantium, the rump was not sufficient to cover the guaranteed allocation to cornerstone investors. As a result, Avantium has placed additional offer shares to cornerstone investors as well as to the pre-committed shareholders for an amount of €9.1 million at the issue price
Furthermore, given the interest in the transaction of both existing shareholders as well as new investors, Avantium has decided to use its full authorisation of €70 million. A private placement offering of €10.4 million was completed after close of market on 8 February 2024 in order to accommodate the excess demand from institutional investors. These offer shares have been placed at a price of €2.30 per offer share. The price represents a discount of 3.2% to the closing price on 8 February 2024 and a premium of 23.0% to the issue price under the Rights Offering.
In total €19.5 million was raised through the upsize offering, resulting in the issue of 9,376,981 new ordinary shares (the “Upsize Offering” and together with the Rights Offering, “the Offering”).
Share capital after the Offering
Following the closing of the Offering, Avantium’s issued share capital will be comprised of 79,625,789 ordinary shares.
Cornerstone investors SENFI Ventures Co., Ltd, an affiliate of SCG Chemicals Public Company Limited, and Dutch entrepreneur Pieter Kooi (indirectly through his holding company, Pieter Kooi Holding B.V.) will respectively be allocated a total of 2,406,417 and 4,010,695 new ordinary shares and will hold 3.0% and 5.0% of the issued share capital after completion of the Offering.
The pre-committed shareholders APG1 , investors represented by Wierda en Partners Vermogensbeheer B.V. and Navitas B.V. will respectively be allocated a total of 3,318,428, 2,591,421 and 1,072,024 new ordinary shares and will hold 9.1%, 7.7% and 3.2% of the issued share capital after completion of the Offering.
Settlement and delivery of the new ordinary shares and commencement of trading on Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Brussels are expected to take place on 12 February 2024.
