Applegreen has raised 175m (£156m) through a share placing with existing and new institutions to part-fund the acquisition of a majority stake in Welcome Break. In the announcement revealing the new funding, the company said the share offer was "significantly oversubscribed".

The new shares represent 23.9% of the company’s share capital, and give it a market capitalisation of 732.6m (£654.1m).

The deal to buy Welcome Break and the share placing are conditional on the approval of shareholders, and will be put to the vote at an EGM on 24 October.

Bob Etchingham, CEO of Applegreen, commented: "We are delighted with the very strong support and encouragement received from existing shareholders and from new investors for the Welcome Break transaction and related placing.

"This acquisition is transformational for our company in the strategically important UK market and we look forward to completion at the end of October. Building a wide and high-quality investor base in parallel with expanding our business across chosen markets are core objectives and this transaction and associated equity raise significantly advances that strategy."

Topics