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UK wine producer Gusbourne has raised a total of £3.7m through the issuance of new shares to invest in its existing vineyards and storage capacity.

The AIM-listed group announced on 12 July it was seeking £3m-£5m through an offer of new shares at 60p per share – the company currently trades at 80.9p per share.

This morning it has announced investors have agreed to buy around £3.7m of new shares, totalling 6.2m new ordinary shares.

The proceeds from this fundraising will be used for capital expenditure on the company’s existing vineyards until maturity, additional winery and storage capacity and working capital, particularly with regard to the company’s increasing wine stocks.

The group’s majority owner Lord Ashcroft has subscribed for £2.7m representing 4,504,510 New shares, of which £1 million will be satisfied through the repayment of a shareholder loan which was provided to the company on 31 May 2018.

The new shares are scheduled for admission on AIM of 11 September 2018.

Lord Ashcroft’s shareholding in the company remains at approximately 72.4% following the fundraising.

Morning update

On the markets this morning, the FTSE 100 has opened down another 0.5% to 7,422.2pts.

Risers include McColl’s (MCLS), up another 2.6% to 156p, Hilton Food Group (HFG), up 1.3% to 950p and Nichols (NICL), up 1% to 1,474.8p.

Fallers so far include volatile PureCircle (PURE), down 7.7% this morning back to 300p, Majestic Wine (WINE), down 1.7% to 402p, Ocado (OCDO), down 1.5% to 1,055p and Coca-Cola HBC (CCH), down 1.3% to 2,625p.

Yesterday in the City

The FTSE 100 had another tough day amid weak construction numbers in the UK and worries over US/Canada trade talks, dropping a further 0.6% back to 7,457.9pts.

McColl’s (MCLS) defied the downward trend, rising 6.1% to 152p yesterday despite announcing that same store sales in the three months through to 26 August 2018 slipped 0.9% due to the effects of subsequent supply chain problems. However, it said it had shifted its supply contract to Morrisons across 1,300 stores ahead of schedule.

Other risers yesterday including Dairy Crest (DCG), which bounced back from setting a new 52-week low on Monday after an downgrade from broker Kepler Capital Markets, regaining 2.2% to 465.4p.

Whitbread (WTB) continued its post-Costa Coffee deal share price surge, rising 2.6% to 4,700p while Majestic Wine (WINE) rose 1.1% to 409p.

DS Smith (SMDS), which yesterday gave a brief first quarter update to the market saying that it sold more boxes at higher prices in the quarter edged up 0,1% to 493.3p.

FTSE 100 fallers included Marks & Spencer (MKS), down 1.9% to 298.4p, Just Eat (JE), down 2.9% to 753.4p, Associated British Foods (ABF), down 1.8% to 2,243p and Reckitt Benckiser (RB) down 1.5% to 6,526p.

Other fallers included Premier Foods (PFD), down 2.1% to 41.3p, PureCircle (PURE), down 2.1% to 325p, Cranswick (CWK), down 1.8% to 3,214p and B&M European Value Retail (BME), down 1.5% to 6,526p.