Ludgate Environmental Fund seeks £15m from AIM share placing

13 July 2010

Jersey-domiciled closed-ended investment company Ludgate Environmental Fund intends to raise up to around £15m through a conditional placing of shares, taking authority to issue up to 25 million new shares on a non-pre-emptive basis, it has said.

The cleantech-focused company will apply to the London Stock Exchange for the placing shares to be admitted to trade on AIM, which it expects to come into effect on 6 August 2010.

The placing shares will be issued at 97.15 pence per share, equal to the company’s unaudited net asset value per share of 98.8 pence minus the interim dividend at 30 June 2010, it said.

Assuming the placing is fully subscribed, this would represent an enlargement of approximately 34 per cent of the company’s issued share capital last year.

The company’s board said it is seeking to enlarge the fund because around 84 per cent of its existing net assets are tied up, with 62 per cent invested already and 22 per cent ear-marked for follow-on investments into its existing portfolio.

It is also declaring an interim dividend of 1.65 pence per share, compared with the final dividend of 1.50 pence per share that was paid in respect of the year ending in June 2009.

As it plans to take authority from shareholders for more than ten per cent of its share capital, the fund’s managers require the approval of shareholders by special resolution.

The enforced authority may also be used for other non-pre-emptive share issues in the future as well as for the placing, Ludgate added.

The company also said it plans to reorganise the management arrangements that have been in place since its admission to AIM in August 2007; replacing the existing management agreement and investment advisory agreement with a new investment advisory agreement between the company and its current investment adviser, Ludgate Investments. It also intends to increase the maximum aggregate annual fees payable to directors to £160,000.

Ludgate Investments identified a number of potential investment opportunities and recommended increasing the company’s share capital on the basis of a shortage of equity and debt development capital to finance emerging businesses in the cleantech sector.

The directors of the company plan to vote in favour of the resolutions in respect of their holdings of 125,445 shares, representing around 0.27 per cent of the company’s issued share capital, said Ludgate.

Increasing the company’s net assets should enable it to achieve economies of scale with regard to its fixed costs, which should result in a modest reduction in the total expense ratio for the company in future, said Ludgate.

The directors have reserved the right to issue further shares and may use any unused shares until the next general meeting.

Launched in 2007 with £50m assets under management, Ludgate Environmental Fund invests in a diverse portfolio of late-stage opportunities in the European cleantech sector.

Copyright © 2010 NewNet

Tags: energy efficiency, share placing

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