Forward Partners, a London-based venture capital firm specialising in supporting high growth, early-stage technology businesses, has announced plans for a proposed admission to trading on AIM and associated placing of 34,749,490 new ordinary shares of 1 penny each at a price of 100 pence per share.
The Company has also made a separate offer via the PrimaryBid platform to retail investors and applications for a total of 1,750,510 new ordinary shares of 1 penny each at the Placing Price have been received.
The listing was oversubscribed – the issue of the Placing Shares and the Offer Shares will raise gross proceeds of GBP36.5 million for the Company.
The Proceeds will principally be used to make future investments in line with the Company’s investing policy; to fund the lending activities of Forward Advances, the Group’s revenue-based financing business; and to provide working capital for the Group’s growth plans.
Based on the Placing Price, the market capitalisation of the Company on Admission will be approximately GBP134.6 million.
Admission and commencement of dealings on AIM are expected to take place at 8:00 am on 19 July 2021 under the ticker FWD.
Nis Brisbourne, Chief Executive Officer of Forward Partners, says: “It’s fantastic to see the strong demand from both institutional and retail investors, who support our vision of democratising access to venture capital, and specifically high growth, UK based technology start-ups. Through our listing, which was oversubscribed, we can take a longer-term approach to building stronger businesses. That is essential to developing solutions to the world’s problems and driving the UK’s economic recovery post pandemic.”
