Hotel Chocolat’s on a sugar high as share price jumps on its first day of trading
It's a pretty sweet day for Hotel Chocolat founders Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris, after shares in the company jumped on its first day of trading today.
After the company priced shares at 148p last week, valuing the company at £167m, they jumped to 175p as the market opened, and were hovering 8.5 per cent higher at 193p in mid-morning trading.
Hotel Chocolat confirmed last week it was planning to sell 8.1m new shares and 29.4m existing shares, with the aim of raising £55.5m from institutional and other investors. Ahead of the placing, it conditionally raised £12m.
Read more: Angus Thirlwell on how he built a Chocolat empire
The flotation of a 33 per cent stake in the company has left founders Thirlwell and Harris with 66.6 per cent slice.
This isn't the first time the company has been involved in the markets – although on previous occasions its dabblings have been rather tastier.
In 2010 it launched the first "chocolate bond" (which, naturally, paid interest in chocolate), raising £4.2m. That was such a success, it launched a follow-up in 2014, raising £5m.
Liberum Capital acted as adviser and broker on the deal.