(Alliance News) - A shareholder in Darktrace PLC is offloading a chunk of shares in the Cambridge-based cybersecurity company, placing bookrunner Jefferies International Ltd said Thursday.
Summit DT Equity Holdings is selling 17 million shares to a limited number of institutional investors, representing around 2.4% of the share capital in Darktrace.
Jefferies will act as sole global coordinator and sole bookrunner in connection with the placing.
Settlement is expected on August 1 and Summit will not make additional sales of shares in Darktrace for a period of 60 days.
Darktrace shares rose 2.9% to 390.90 pence each in London on Thursday. At the current price, the stake sale would be worth GBP66.5 million.
The move comes around a week after shares in Darktrace jumped 19% following an upbeat trading update and the completion of an investigation into the company by accountants, EY.
In the financial year that ended on June 30, Darktrace said revenue was up 31% to at least USD544.3 million from USD415.5 million a year prior, with annual recurring revenue up 29% in constant currency from USD514,380 in financial 2022.
Darktrace added that customer numbers grew by 18% from 7,437 customers the year before.
Darktrace also announced the completion of Ernst & Young's independent review. The company had brought in the accountants to conduct a third-party probe into its financial processes in February, after falling under scrutiny from short-seller Quintessential Capital Management.
Quintessential had criticised Darktrace's management and said it was "sceptical" about its growth figures.
"Neither management nor the board consider EY's report to have any impact on Darktrace's previously filed public company financial statements nor to change their belief that those financial statements fairly represent Darktrace's financial position and results," Darktrace said.
By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter
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Darktrace (DARK)