Member Article

Tanfield Group raise £2m for Smith in US

Tanfield Group plc has raised £2m through a share placing to support associate company Smith Electric Vehicles Corp.

The work platform manufacturer has placed over 5m new Ordinary shares at a price of 42p, raising proceeds of £2.2m.

Washington-base Tanfield owns a 24% stake in Smith, and has agreed to provide short-term bridging loan to Smith in the US, to provide liquidity support prior to Smith’s planned initial public offering “IPO”.

The loan will mature in 180 days and Smith has also secured bridge financing from its key shareholders, totalling $12m.

Darren Kell, Chief Executive, commented “Given that Tanfield is Smith’s largest shareholder, Tanfield is keen to support the company in its planned IPO.

“This fundraising that will enable Tanfield to participate in a lending facility that gives Smith that support without risking the progress achieved year to date in the powered access business.”

In the first quarter of 2012, Tanfield raised approximately £11.4m of expenses by way of placing of new equity to invest in its supply chain.

The move allowed the firm to grow its global powered access business, in response to greater demand.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .