LONDON: AFC Energy plc announced the expansion of its existing strategic partnership with ABB through the signing of a new Development Agreement for the integration and supply of fuel cells to the global data centre market.
AFC received investment from commercial partners, ABB (£3.25 million) and Dutco (£1.5 million), by way of a subscription of 7,364,340 new ordinary shares raising in aggregate £4.75 million; and a placing of approximately 46,899,225 new Ordinary Shares with institutional investors.
The issue price per new Ordinary Share to be issued pursuant to the Subscription and the Placing is 64.5 pence per share which represents a discount of approximately five percent to the closing mid-market price of 68 pence per Ordinary Share on 15 April 2021, being the latest practicable date prior to the publication of this Announcement.
The Directors have concluded that proceeding with the Fundraising is the most suitable option available to the Company for raising additional funds through the issue of new Ordinary Shares and that issuing the new Ordinary Shares at a discount is fair and reasonable so far as all existing Shareholders are concerned.
The Placing is to be conducted by way of an accelerated bookbuild process which Gary Bullard, Chairman and Non-Executive Director of AFC, and Joseph Mangion, Non-Executive Director of AFC, intend to subscribe for an aggregate of 45,000 new Ordinary Shares at the Issue Price.
Fundraising Highlights
· Fundraising by way of the Placing and the Subscription to raise in aggregate approximately £35 million (before expenses) through the issue of an aggregate of approximately 54,263,565 new Ordinary Shares at the Issue Price.
· The Company has raised £4.75 million (before expenses) through the Subscription of 7,364,340 new Ordinary Shares at the Issue Price.
· The Placing will be conducted via an accelerated bookbuild process of new Ordinary Shares at the Issue Price.
· The Issue Price represents a discount of approximately five per cent. to the closing mid-market price of 68 pence per Ordinary Share on 15 April 2021, being the latest practicable date prior to the publication of this Announcement.
· The Fundraising Shares, assuming full take-up, will represent approximately 7.4 per cent. of the Enlarged Issued Share Capital.
· The net proceeds of the Fundraising will be used to support (i) the continued product development of AFC Energy and ABB’s next generation high power sustainable electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions; (ii) the development of new power solutions utilising AFC’s alkaline fuel cell technology platform, including the high growth global data centre market in collaboration with ABB; and (iii) the continued development of the Company’s scalable manufacturing capacity to address possible future growth in system demand.