Honeycomb share sale proves sweet for investors
HONEYCOMB Investment Trust sailed through its latest fundraising on Thursday to raise gross proceeds of £100m from a share sale, brushing off concerns about an unorthodox approach to the equity issuance.
The alternative-finance focused fund placed 9.52m shares at £10.50 per share.
This was around a seven per cent discount to where the shares were trading earlier in the week, according to data from the London Stock Exchange.
The new shares are expected to be tradeable from 23 April.
Numis analysts said on Thursday that the offer period for the share sale was unusually short, reflecting the fund’s concentrated institutional shareholder base.
Around 80 per cent of the shares before the latest issuance were owned by Invesco, Old Mutual, Woodford and M&G, according to Numis.
Honeycomb offers investors dividend income and capital growth mostly by buying consumer and small business loans.
Honeycomb already raised £105m from an oversubscribed share placing last May, used to capitalise on new business opportunities.
It is currently trading on a premium to net asset value of 12.6 per cent.
Read more: Sancus draws first funding from Honeycomb credit facility