Augmentum raises £94m in LSE flotation

Kenny Wastell
12 March 2018

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Augmentum Fintech, the newly announced vehicle of retail investment trust fund manager Augmentum Capital, has raised ТЃ94m via its listing on the London Stock Exchange.

The amount raised falls slightly below the £100m target the firm set itself when it announced its intention to float in February.

The listing consisted of 94 million shares valued at 100 pence apiece, with Augmentum's management team and their family members holding 3.6% of the issued share capital following the flotation. In total, the management team, the GP's sole LP RIT Capital Partners and other principal vendors of the portfolio invested a combined £12m in the listed fund.

Augmentum announced it was in the process of launching the listed fund in January. As part of the flotation, Augmentum Fintech has acquired a portfolio of minority stakes in five companies currently held by Augmentum Capital (as well as the structural elements of the GP) for a total consideration of £33m, a source told Unquote at the time of the January announcement.

The vehicle will look to invest a substantial portion of its funds within a year of the admission. It will be internally managed, while Frostrow Capital has been appointed as alternative investment fund manager for the purposes of AIFM rules.

The new entity will make early-stage investments in fintech companies predominantly in the UK and mainland Europe, though it will not make any seed investments. It will specifically look at opportunities related to banking, insurance and asset management, as well as cross-industry companies.

The companies to be transferred as a result of the flotation comprise BullionVault, Interactive Investor, Seedrs, SRL Global and Zopa, in which the new fund will own stakes of 11%, 4%, 4%, 10% and 7% respectively.

According to an earlier statement, the management team has a particular attraction to London-based companies, though it has also identified Berlin, Paris, Scandinavia and the Baltic region as areas that will provide investment opportunities.

The GP also recruited Amadeus Capital Partners' venture partner Perry Blacher to manage the fund.

Fidante Capital acted as sole financial adviser, bookrunner and joint sponsor for the listing.