LONDON (Alliance News) - The Chinese chemicals producer GTS Chemical Holdings PLC was untraded following its initial public offering on AIM Friday, as Niger-focused oil and gas company Savannah Petroleum PLC and steel pipe manufacturer Pressfit Holdings PLC saw their shares rise in early dealings.
GTS priced its initial public offering on AIM at 36 pence, giving it an initial market capitalisation of GBP36.8 million. However, it was untraded by 1200 BST on Friday.
The company is the largest Chinese producer of ammonium sulfite, a chemical which is a key element of the process of manufacturing paper from straw. GTS says sales of ammonium sulfite in China are expected to grow at an annual compound rate of 12% from 2014 to 2020.
It added that the fundraising will be used to expand the company's production capacity of ammonium sulfite to enable it to meet contracted additional customer demand.
"I am delighted to be able to announce our admission to AIM today. Our IPO marks the start of the next major phase of development for GTS. It will enable us to broaden our investor base and assist in raising funds to expand our production facilities," Chief Executive Cheng Liu said in a statement.
Savannah Petroleum began trading on AIM Friday and by midday was trading at 60 pence, 7.1% above its initial public offering price of 56 pence.
The company said the initial issuance of 52.3 million shares at 56 pence had raised GBP29.3 million, with 131.3 million shares in issuance after the admission giving the company an initial market capitalisation of GBP73.5 million.
Savannah Petroleum said it plans to use the cash it raises to undertake a planned exploration programme, which includes the acquisition of full tensor gravity and significant seismic surveys over the R1/R2 PSC Area.
The primary Eocene oil exploration target at the R1/R2 PSC area has been estimated by consultants CGG Robertson to contain best estimate prospective resources of 573 million barrels, with 544 million barrels available to the company.
Pressfit Holdings also began trading on AIM Friday, and was trading at 9.51 pence, a touch above its initial public offering price of 9.5 pence.
Pressfit Holdings manufactures and distributes stainless and carbon steel pressfittings for use in industrial and residential piping systems. Pressfitting is a method of mechanically joining metal pipes to a connector, to create a reliable sealed joint.
Earlier on Friday, Pressfit said it would initially issue 526,316 shares, bringing its total number of shares to 50.9 million and giving it an initial market capitalisation of GBP4.8 million.
"Admission to London's AIM market is a huge step forward for Pressfit Holdings' development and it will significantly raise the company's profile and status amongst customers and investors," Chief Executive Henry Chui said in a statement.
"It will support us in our continued ambition to provide high quality pressfittings at affordable prices for our customers in the water and gas industries around the world. We look forward to creating increased value for our shareholders as we begin life as a quoted company on AIM," Chui added.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
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