Durham University spin-out Applied Graphene Materials (AGM) has secured £11m ($17.7m) following its floatation on the Alternative Investment Market through the placing of seven million ordinary shares.
AGM’s initial price of 155p per share rose sharply during its first day of trading to 216p, valuing at the company at over £36m.
The firm plans to use the funding to expand its commercial scale facility’s capacity for the production of graphene from one tonne to eight within 18 months. The move will assist AGM in expanding into the graphene production market, which is expected to rise from 40 tonnes currently to 400 tonnes by 2017.
Jon Mabbitt, chief executive of AGM, said: “We knew there was an interest but we didn’t expect this kind of response; it’s fantastic. It’s good to see there’s an appetite for shares in high-technology, and particularly our company. Graphene is particularly topical – now the hard work really starts.”
