The Merian Chrysalis Investment Company has exceeded the £50m of additional capital it sought to raise last month as a growing number of closed-ended vehicles look to take advantage of opportunities in private equity .
The company, which invests in later stage private UK companies, announced in a stock exchange statement on Monday that the target raise is “well covered” by orders from a wide range of institutional and private investors.
“As a result, the company expects the final funds raised under the placing to be significantly in excess of £50m,” it added.
The company said it will cap the gross funds raised at £100m for the placing which is expected to close at 4pm on Monday.
It said the final number of new shares will be agreed between the company and its broker Liberum after the placing closes. Admission of the new shares to the London Stock Exchange is expected to occur on 18 April.
Association of Investment Companies chief executive Ian Sayers (pictured) said private equity is a growing area of interest among closed-ended investment vehicles.
He said: “Private equity has the potential to outperform public companies over the long term and we are seeing a growing interest in investment companies taking advantage of this opportunity. A number of investment companies have increased their exposure to private equity or amended their investment policy to be able to invest a portion of their portfolios in private equity as the investment company structure is particularly suitable for this type of investment.”
Merian Chrysalis announced last month it was seeking an additional £50m via a placing for a pipeline of eight opportunities. At the same time, the Mobius Investment Trust announced it had issued 125,000 new ordinary shares of 1p each at a price of 102 pence per share.
Both companies’ initial fundraising efforts fell short of their target because of market volatility.
In January, M&G Credit Income raised an additional £25.3m from investors via an oversubscribed issue several months after it played down the £100m raised in November, well short of its £250m IPO target.
