Exhibitions and conferences operator Hyve Group has agreed to acquire meetings programme organisers 121 Group and 121 Partners after having successfully raised funds via a placing and the direct subscription of new ordinary shares.
Hyve Group will make an initial consideration of $28.0m for 121, while the estimated total consideration after earn-out was expected to be between approximately £42.0m and £50.0m.
In order to help fund the transaction, Hyve Group raised gross proceeds of approximately £14.79m from its placement of 13.81m new ordinary shares with institutional investors. The placing shares, which made up approximately 5.21% of the company’s existing issued share capital, were placed at a price of 107.0p each, representing a discount of 0.7% to the stock’s closing market price on 17 November.
The London-listed firm also launched a direct subscription of 12.69m new ordinary shares at a price of 112.35p per new ordinary share by investment funds managed by Strategic Value Partners, representing approximately 4.79% of the company’s existing issued share capital, to raise gross proceeds of approximately £14.26m. The subscription price represented a premium of 5.0% to the placing price.
In terms of recent trading, Hyve said market trends had remained “consistent” with those seen at the time of its pre-close trading update in October but acknowledged that the Covid-19 situation remained “fluid”, with international travel still in recovery.
As of 0930 GMT, Hyve shares were up 2.34% at 110.32p.
