Independent training provider Northcoders has raised £2.1m by issuing nearly 700,000 new ordinary shares at a price of 300 pence per share.
The directors of the Manchester-headquartered firm decided that the most suitable option to raise additional funds was through the issue of shares at a discount.
Because the placing was oversubscribed, CEO Chris Hill and COO Amul Batra, agreed to sell 19,588 and 19,587 existing ordinary shares respectively. David Llewellyn, a substantial shareholder, also agreed to sell 13,333 of his shares.
Following his sale, Hill now holds 1,504,080 ordinary shares representing 19.6 per cent of the enlarged share capital, while Batra will hold 949,413 shares representing 12.4 per cent.
The placing price represented a discount of approximately 4.8 per cent to the closing price of 315 pence per ordinary share on November 18.
Training provider Northcoders wins government £4m contract to boost growth
Angela Williams, chairman of Northcoders Group, said: “We are extremely pleased to have raised approximately £2.1 million via an oversubscribed placing today, the proceeds of which will allow us to further accelerate our growth strategy as Northcoders continues to build and expand.
“Following our successful IPO in July 2021, we have seen significant growth in demand for our technology training across the UK and this placing will further accelerate our growth, allowing us to add four new training courses which will not only increase the technology bootcamp numbers but also provide a broader service offering to our growing list of corporate clients. We are also excited to invest further in our key NCore technical delivery platform, which will improve cost of sale efficiencies.
“Through this fundraise we will further grow our service offering, increasing the demand for our services and allowing us to tackle the UK tech skills gap, providing UK companies with the technologists they need and providing life-changing opportunities for individual from all walks of life.”
The net proceeds of the placing will be used to further accelerate the company’s growth strategy by introducing four new technology training courses in cyber security; platform engineering; quality assurance; and agile project and product management.
They will sit alongside the company’s current courses of software development and data engineering and are expected to be developed and launched during 2023.
New chair at Northcoders as Sandy Lindsay announces retirement
Investment of £500,000 will also be made into NCore, the group’s core technical delivery platform, in order to further improve cost of sale efficiencies.
Northcoders was founded in 2015 and has sites in Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Newcastle.