Biofutures soars on placing

Shares in biofuels specialist Biofutures International more than doubled on Monday after it announced a placing as part of its acquisition of Platinum NanoChem.

Biofutures is placing approximately 116.54m shares at 140p each, raising £32.5m, giving the enlarged company a market cap of £162m.

The placing follows Biofutures's decision back in December to enter into an agreement to acquire the privately held global nanotechnology company by way of a reverse takeover. The merger of the two will result in an enlarged integrated business and will be named Graphene NanoChem.

Graphene NanoChem will be re-listed on AIM.

Biofutures International Chief Executive Officer Joe Wong said: "The proposed acquisition of Platinum NanoChem and the successful placement represent a significant opportunity to enhance shareholder value. The enlarged group is poised for growth based on its established revenue generating business model and its ability to apply its Graphene production technology to a range of products targeting major markets in the near and longer terms."

According to reports, the proceeds of the placing will go towards increasing the capacity of the company's chemical plants from 90m to 136m litres per annum and its nanomaterials plant from 1,000kg to 250,000kg per annum.

Biofutures's share price rose 101.61% to 6.25p by 13:43.

NR