Merian Chrysalis fundraising to 'well exceed' £100m

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Merian Chrysalis fundraising to 'well exceed' £100m

Fundraising for the Merian Chrysalis investment trust is expected to well exceed the £100m initially proposed.

The trust announced it was planning to issue about £100m in ordinary shares to fund further investments last week but has today (September 20) announced it expects the final funds raised through this to be “well in excess” of that figure.

According to Merian, this was because indicative orders of the shares had oversubscribed the initial offering and had been received from a “wide range of high quality institutional and other investors”.

The £212m trust invests in a small number of unquoted companies and was the first trust launched by Merian Global Investors, coming to market in November 2018.

The trust raised £100m at launch but has since had multiple fundraising expeditions.

Shares in the company have traded at a premium to net asset value, where the shares themselves are worth more than the assets in the trust, since its launch, which the company puts down to “strong demand” for access to the trust’s underlying companies.

Following a number of recent investments — including Embark Group, Klarna Holding and Sorted Holdings — the portfolio is now 80 per cent invested, with a number of potential investments in the pipeline.

Merian Global Investors is aiming to access the funds to push forward with new investments but around 50 per cent of the proceeds is set be used to acquire additional stakes in existing holdings.

This will involve buying unquoted holdings it currently holds in its open-ended funds and placing them in the closed-ended investment trust Merian Chrysalis.

Over the past six months the trust has gained 10.22 per cent, while its sector, the AIC Growth Capital, has lost 12.22 per cent.

imogen.tew@ft.com

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