Maestrano raises £2m for staff and capacity expansion

(Sharecast News) - Transport-focussed artificial intelligence (AI) company Maestrano Group announced a proposed placing via an accelerated bookbuild on Wednesday, to raise a total of £2m before expenses.
The AIM-traded firm said the placing was being conducted at a price of 13p per share.

It said the gross proceeds of the placing would be used in a number of areas, with £1.3m earmarked for marketing and technical staff, and £0.3m for premises and manufacturing capacity expansion.

The balance of the proceeds would be used for working capital and placing expenses.

Maestrano noted that the issue price represented a discount of about 8.8% to the closing middle market price of 14.25p per share on 2 March.

"For the [first half], the company recorded revenue of £0.73m, a 128% increase on the corresponding six months to 31 December 2019, reflecting the strong business growth from Corridor, acquired in November 2019," the board said of its current trading in its statement.

"Contracted recurring revenue was 44%, and the company [is] focussed on growing this substantially over the next three years."

Maestrano's directors said the company had a "well evolved and differentiated" value proposition for its target markets, and a substantial sales pipeline of qualified opportunities.

"We are confident of continuing growth in 2021 and beyond."

At 1149 GMT, shares in Maestrano Group were up 0.18% at 14.27p.