Graphene soars 40pc on debut
APPLIED Graphene Materials saw its share price jump nearly 40 per cent on its first day of trading yesterday, as investors piled in to buy shares during its oversubscribed debut.
“Graphene grabs the headlines… but financial investors and institutions have been great in their understanding of this innovation. The float gives us a financial platform to take the business forward,” chief executive Jon Mabbitt told City AM yesterday.
Graphene is a new material expected to revolutionise fields such as medicine and manufacturing with its light, strong and conductive properties.
The newly public company last night had a market valuation of £38.5m, up 39 per cent from £26.2m the firm was valued at when the shares were first sold.
“We knew we were oversubscribed initially, so it doesn’t surprise me that we’ve seen such a large amount of activity, but to go so high is fantastic,” Mabbitt added.
The company said that proceeds from the offering – some £11m was raised – would be invested in increasing Applied Graphene’s production capacity up to eight tonnes per year, but Mabbitt said demand could see the company increase this further.
“Some of the initial applications could require much greater quantities than that, but we don’t have great visibility of that at the moment. So we’ve got a flexible manufacturing model where we can scale up in the near term.”