Applegreen plc has raised £66.9m through the flotation of the company.

At the end of the May Applegreen announced that it intended to float the business to raise funds for expansion and upgrades to existing sites.

At the same time it renamed the company, using its Applegreen brand name, so Petrogas Global Limited became Applegreen plc.

The Irish company currently owns about 100 sites in the Irish Republic, and was ranked fifth in the Forecourt Trader Top 50 Indies with 54 UK sites. It also owns two sites in Long Island in the US. Last year the head of its UK arm, Michael O’Loughlin, was crowned Retailer Champion of the Year at the Forecourt Trader Awards.

Bob Etchingham, CEO of Applegreen, said: “Along with the rest of the management team I am delighted to announce the successful completion of our IPO and our first day of trading as a listed company. We are very pleased with our list of new institutional shareholders. Their support provides further endorsement of our strategy and our growth prospects.

“The funds raised will provide us with the platform to accelerate our growth across the markets in which we operate and further expand and rebrand our portfolio of sites.

“We look forward to embarking on the next step in the company’s journey as a public listed company and generating significant value for our new shareholders.

In its statement the company said the proceeds of the flotation would be used to fund:

• an upgrade and rebrand up to 70 sites across the group’s existing network of sites in Ireland and the UK;

• to accelerate expansion in Ireland and the UK – which currently stands at about 20 sites a year - both by number of sites and by geography;

• to develop new service area sites in Ireland and the UK; and

• to take advantage of other opportunities that may arise including building a platform for growth in the US and opportunistic acquisitions of portfolios of sites that may become available.

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