Hill Dickinson advises Agronomics Limited on £10m equity fundraise

Hill Dickinson’s Corporate team has recently advised AIM-listed client Agronomics Limited on an equity fundraise which raised gross proceeds of £10 million from institutional investors and certain directors (the Fundraise). 

The Fundraise was undertaken by means of a placing and subscription at an issue price of six pence per share (Issue Price), representing a nil discount to the closing mid-market price of the company’s ordinary shares on 21 October 2020. The Issue Price is also at a premium of 6.8% to the latest reported net asset value of 5.62 pence per share as at 30 September 2020.

The Fundraise is to provide additional funds for investment by Agronomics following the completion of a number of investments (including investments in Mosa Meat, Meatable, Solar Foods, the LIVEKINDY co., VitroLabs, and Tropic Biosciences) since its fundraising in January 2020 which the Hill Dickinson Corporate team also advised on. 

Furthermore, to provide shareholders and other investors who did not participate in the Fundraise with the opportunity to do so, the firm’s corporate team advised Agronomics on the grant of an option (the Broker Option) to Peterhouse Capital Limited (Peterhouse), to subscribe for up to an additional 16,666,667 new ordinary shares at the Issue Price, exercisable before 9 November 2020. As far as is practical, participation in the Broker Option will be prioritised for shareholders (direct or indirect) on the register at the close of business on 23 October 2020. If the Broker Option is fully taken up, it will raise an additional £1 million. 

The Hill Dickinson team was led by Corporate partner Michael Corcoran with assistance from associate Melissa Campbell and Corporate paralegal Sanne Gerdsen.

Melissa Campbell, who specialises in the clean food sector, said: “We are thrilled to have advised Agronomics on another fantastic fundraise. To raise £12.2 million in 2019 and, so far, £15.5 million in 2020 is extremely impressive and clearly shows the clean meat sector is continuing to be one of the most attractive investment trends we are currently seeing. Congratulations to the Agronomics team, with who it is always a pleasure working with and we look forward to seeing the company grow even further as we bring a close to 2020 and furthermore into 2021.”

Commenting, Jim Mellon, non-executive director of Agronomics, stated: “The further expansion of Agronomics’ capital is validation of its role in the thematic play of the New Agrarian Revolution. The company is at the forefront of investing in the food and material producers of the future, some of which I write about in my forthcoming book Moo’s Law, released end of November. I am proud to be the largest subscriber to this round and look forward to great returns from the team at Agronomics”.