Firm also released its final results showing good progress on transition to tech business
Companies: BNN Technology
Chinese technology and content provider BNN Technology completed a £25m placing on Thursday morning in a bid to become a "major data-focused" internet portal in China.
The move, first published at 7 am on Thursday followed shortly afterwards by confirmation that it was complete, will enable the firm to invest in two new platforms, and align it to the Chinese government's 13th Five Year Plan for its citizens.
The placing consisted of 31.25m new ordinary shares at 80p and was fulfilled by existing and new institutional investors. The shares will be issued in two tranches, the first for 15.6m (£12.5m) and the second conditional on the approval of BNN shareholders.
BNN said it wants to create a platform in China that combines recruitment, financial services and private equity funding, as well as a credit rating platform.
On the placing, CEO Darren Mercer said the company's transition into "a significant Chinese portal" was moving apace, with the initiatives announced today "transformational" to its prospects:
"... not only in terms of the major industry sectors in which we aim to participate, but also in progressing our ambition to build one of the largest database platform providers in the world's second-largest economy."
He added that both of the deals offered potential to create "substantial" shareholder value through new revenue generation. The company is targeting "hundreds of millions" of new users using the new platforms.
Final Results
In another update, the firm also announced its final results on Thursday reporting revenues of £2.1m, down 61% YoY after pivoting into a technology company. It began generating revenues from its new business model in H216.
Gross transaction volumes increased 364% to £289.6m following the launch of its B2B mobile payments business, but operating losses widened to £16.5m as the firm heavily invested in people and tech.
Today's raise is the fourth since starting its transition into a tech-focused platform business.
On the final results, Mr Mercer said 2016 had been a year of significant investment, with the firm focusing heavily on building its new platform.
"...we have pivoted to becoming a technology portal in China. We have a clear strategy, and are focused on developing our capabilities in three core areas: payments, content and value-added services.
As a result of this transformation, we have made significant investment upfront to build out our expertise in both data and operations. We believe this investment will add significant value to the group in building, what we hope, will be one of the largest databases in China, have been critical in opening up further commercial opportunities with key partners, and also drive the Group's revenue growth, in 2017 and beyond."
Finally, BNN confirmed its application to list on the NASDAQ was slightly later than expected, but progressing. The company has refined the internal structure of the company to comply with stricter internal control requirements of the Nasdaq.
Shares in BNN rose 5% on Thursday.
