Lloyd's vehicle Helios secures ILS Capital, HSCM backing with £53.5m capital raise

Lloyd's investment vehicle Helios has secured the backing of ILS Capital Management and Hudson Structured Capital Management to help fund an acceleration in its limited liability vehicles (LLV) acquisition strategy over the next 12 months.

Helios has raised gross proceeds of approximately £53.5 million by placing new ordinary shares at a price of £1.60 per share.

ILS Capital has agreed to subscribe for £20.8 million of capital raise by Helios, while Hudson Structured is to invest additional £20.0 million.

The directors of Helios believe that the support from such knowledgeable insurance players "endorses the current business model and echoes their view that pricing in the insurance market is attractive".

The company said it will use the net proceeds of the fundraise for potential future acquisitions of LLVs, and to finance an increase in the capacity from pre-emptions.

Helios has secured £43.8 million through the issuance of 27,375,000 new ordinary shares. Additionally, it said a total of 6,037,625 new ordinary shares have been placed at the issue price with existing and new investors, raising approximately £9.7 million, subject to shareholder approval.

The company has also proposed to raise up to a further approximately £3 million by way of a conditional open offer of 1,861,787 open offer shares to qualifying shareholders at the issue price, subject to shareholder approval.

Nigel Hanbury, chief executive of Helios, said: "This is a period of unprecedented opportunity for Helios, with a hardening market coupled with the opportunities we see to make further LLV acquisitions which would be value enhancing for our shareholders.

"Helios is uniquely positioned to capitalise on these opportunities. We are delighted with the results of the fundraise and thank our existing shareholders for their support and welcome our new investors."

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