Versarien PLC Successful Fundraising of £1.5 million (5468Y)

TIDMVRS

RNS Number : 5468Y

Versarien PLC

06 March 2017

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Versarien plc

("Versarien" or the "Company")

Successful Fundraising of GBP1.5 million

Versarien plc (AIM:VRS), the advanced materials group, announced on 3 March 2017 the launch of a fundraising comprising a placing by WH Ireland in conjunction with an offer via PrimaryBid (the "Offer") (together the "Fundraising") to raise approximately GBP1 million at 15p per new ordinary share.

The Company is delighted to announce that it has successfully completed the Fundraising. The Fundraising received a very strong response from private and institutional investors, and the Fundraising was oversubscribed. The Offer was on a "first come, first served" basis and was closed early at 7.00 p.m. on 4 March 2017, with the Fundraising having already been approximately 50% oversubscribed by that time. The Company has therefore decided to increase the size of the Fundraising in order to meet this demand. The Company will therefore issue and allot a total of 10,036,699 new ordinary shares ("New Ordinary Shares") to satisfy the Fundraising. The gross proceeds of the Fundraising are GBP1,505,504.85.

Henderson Global Investors and Miton, each of whom are substantial shareholders in the Company, have subscribed for 1,333,333 and 1,333,334 new ordinary shares respectively in the Fundraising. Their subscriptions constitute a related party transactions under the AIM Rules as each currently holds more than 10% of the existing ordinary shares and is therefore a "substantial shareholder" under the AIM Rules. The Directors, all of whom are independent for the purposes of this transaction, consider, having consulted with WH Ireland, the Company's nominated adviser, that the terms of Henderson's and Miton's subscriptions are fair and reasonable insofar as the Shareholders are concerned.

Application will be made to the London Stock Exchange for the New Ordinary Shares, which rank pari passu with the Company's existing Ordinary Shares, to be admitted to trading on AIM. Dealings are expected to commence at 8.00 a.m. on 10 March 2017.

Neill Ricketts, Chief Executive Officer of Versarien, commented:

"We are delighted with the support we have received from both existing and new institutional and private investors for the Fundraising. In particular we are delighted with the support we have received from private investors through PrimaryBid and to have the opportunity to increase the size of the Fundraising to satisfy some of that demand.

"The funds raised will allow us to significantly scale up both our graphene manufacturing capabilities and our marketing efforts to take advantage of the substantial commercial opportunities we are seeing. Versarien is at the forefront of the commercialisation of graphene and the Fundraising will allow us to more widely market our recently launched graphene brand, Nanene, and increase the resources available to the other graphene projects we are working on. We look forward to these funds allowing us to accelerate the use of graphene in a variety of commercial applications."

Total Voting Rights

Following the issue of the New Ordinary Shares, the Company will have 131,330,702 ordinary shares of 1p each in issue. No ordinary shares are held in treasury. The figure of 131,330,702 may be used by the Company's shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

Enquiries:

Versarien plc 01242 269 122

Neil Ricketts, CEO

Chris Leigh, CFO

WH Ireland (Nominated Advisor) 0117 945 3470

Mike Coe / Ed Allsopp

PrimaryBid Limited 0207 491 6519

Dave Mutton

IFC Advisory Ltd, Financial PR and IR 0203 053 8671

Tim Metcalfe

Graham Herring

Heather Armstrong

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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March 06, 2017 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)