Virgin Wines PLC starts trading on AIM next week after over-subscribed placing

Virgin Wines PLC (LON:VNO) said it will join London’s junior market AIM next week with a value of £110mln at a listing price of 197p after a heavily over-subscribed placing.

Existing shareholders sold £34.9mln worth of shares, while the company raised a further £13mln in new money to repay preference shares and existing loan notes.

Jay Wright, Virgin Wines chief executive, said: “We are delighted by the strong support we have received from blue-chip institutional investors and that the Placing was significantly over-subscribed.

“Our Admission to AIM will provide us with the platform to execute our ambitious growth plans”. 

The online wine retailer is another company that licenses the Virgin brand from Richard Branson’s Virgin Group.

In the year to the end of June 2019 (the most recent set of full-year accounts available), the company reported a pre-tax profit of £1.7mln.

“We have enjoyed strong, consistent growth recently resulting in the group delivering more than one million cases of wine to consumers during 2020,” Wright added.

“Underpinned by the strength of our customer proposition as well as the benefit of many positive consumer trends, we have a clear strategy to continue this growth over the coming years,” he said.

On admission, four Venture Capital Trusts advised by will own approximately 36.1% of the shares in issue via Rapunzel Newco while senior management will own approximately 20.3%.

Dealings on AIM are scheduled to commence on Tuesday, 2 March.