Graphene firm sinks below offer price on weak stock market debut
GRAPHENE maker Haydale Graphene Industries made its debut on the Alternative Investment Market yesterday but weak investor demand saw its shares close below their offer price.
After an opening price of 210p and a valuation of £23.6m Haydale’s shares hit 229p before sinking to close at 192p.
The Welsh firm deals in the a high-tech new material, graphene, which is expected to revolutionise medicine and manufacturing, with its light and strong properties.
Haydale follows several other graphene firms onto the market including production group Applied Graphene Materials, a spin-out of Durham University whose stock has more than doubled to 502.5p since floating in November.
Yesterday’s initial public offering raised £6.6m for Haydale, which said the proceeds will help it expand its team and fund its work on finding new uses for the one atom thick material.
“Our successful fundraising and initial public offering will contribute significantly to the development and progression of our enabling, proprietary plasma technology, which is capable of being tailored to produce a wide range of surface modifications,” said chief executive Ray Gibbs.
Meanwhile, materials group Versarien said yesterday it has agreed to buy a majority stake in graphene group 2-DTech from the University of Manchester for £440,000.
BEHIND THE DEAL
CAIRN FINANCIAL ADVISERS | TONY RAWLINSON
1 Rawlinson founded Cairn in 2009. He was previously chair of Dowgate Capital Stockbrokers until it was bought by Astaire.
2 He has led transactions including Viacom 18’s £63m cash offer for the Indian Film Company, the floats of Coral Products, Red Emperor Resources and Premier African Minerals on Aim.
3 Outside of work Rawlinson sits on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market advisory group and enjoys classical music, tennis, skiing and travelling abroad.
Also advising…
Haydale’s £6.6m initial public offering was also advised by Paul Trendell from Cairn who acted as nominated advisers with a team from Hume Capital Securities acting as brokers including Guy Peters and David Lawman. Trevor Phillips and Chris Steele from Hermes Financial are handling the firm’s PR.