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Sydney-based technology company Audinate (ASX: AD8) has taken advantage of recent share price highs and its newfound unicorn status to successfully raise $50 million in an institutional placement, while another $20 million is in the offing through a share purchase plan (SPP) that will run until early October.
As the developer of Dante, a leading audiovisual ethernet media networking solution, Audinate has seen its shares soar since August when it reported a 156 per cent jump in earnings to $11 million, underpinned by increased sales for its chips, cards & modules (CCM) and software sales divisions amidst new customer wins and product launches.
Audinate announced the raise yesterday to help deliver organic growth through continued strategic investment in new and innovative products, replicate its success to date for its audio solutions in video, and have the flexibility to explore a pipeline of bolt-on merger and acquisition opportunities.
After the SPP the group expects to have a cash position of $90 million.
The $50 million was raised at $13 per share, representing a 9 per cent discount to the previous traded price on 6 September, but still well above the $10 mark before its FY23 results were announced. The raise diluted existing share capital by almost 5 per cent.
"We greatly appreciate the support of existing shareholders and the opportunity to bring some new investors onto the register," says Audinate’s CEO Aidan Williams, who co-founded the company in 2006 as a spin-off from research he led at the National Information and Communication Technology Australia (NICTA), where Williams led a team he recruited after Motorola closed its research facility three years earlier.
"Recent positive results and support from investors position us well to “win in video” and accelerate our vision of the operating system for AV.
"We are conscious of the trust placed in us to deploy this additional capital wisely in our longer strategic mission to pioneer the future of AV."
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