HEALTHCARE software firm Craneware has abandoned hurried plans to raise £80 million from investors after its main US acquisition target agreed to sell to a rival.
The company, which is headquartered in Edinburgh, announced at 5pm on Tuesday this week that it was proposing to raise £80m from investors through a share placing after identifying “a small number of acquisition opportunities which it believes provide the company with compelling synergistic benefits.”
But at 7am on Wednesday morning, Craneware announced that the deal was off – even though its placing had been oversubscribed, with around £83m raised from new and existing investors at a price of 1550p per share.
“The board has decided that it would be in the best interests of the company and its shareholders not to proceed with the placing and the placing agreement has been terminated,” said the company, which has been led by chief executive Keith Neilson since it was founded in 1999.
“This decision has been taken following news in the US overnight that the company’s proposed primary acquisition target has agreed acquisition terms with a third party, meaning certain conditions set out in the placing agreement would not have been able to be satisfied.”
Mr Neilson, his chief financial officer Craig Preston and his chairman Will Whitehorn had all planned to invest in the placing to the tune of around $315,000.
Craneware sells billing and financial management software to US healthcare providers and employs 350 across its offices in Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Edinburgh. At its half year results in March, it had cash reserves of $45m. In a trading update on 8 July, the company said that, in spite of Covid-19 disruption, it expected full year revenues of $71.4m would be the same as last year, with adjusted earnings slightly ahead at $24.5m.
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