Redefine shares dive on stock offer

Investors in property investment firm Redefine have showed their displeasure at the company's plan to launch heavily discounted new shares.

The firm said it would raise £127m through the issue of over 490m new shares to pay down debt and create investment opportunities.

The issue price of 26p represents a discount of 7.5p - over 22% - to the closing price of 33.5p per share on the close of trade on Wednesday, the day before the details were released.

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"The board remains confident of the group's long term growth prospects but, in order to achieve this growth, the group needs to reduce its financial leverage and create a stable long-term capital structure," the statement said.

It added the capital raised was expected to provide a long-term stable capital structure from which a sustainable dividend could be distributed.

This wasn't enough to assuage angry investors who sold up, pushing shares down 9%.

The price move came despite the offer having the support of the company's largest shareholder, Redefine Properties International, which holds approximately 71.7%. of the company's ordinary shares.