ITM Power in share placing to raise £9m for growth

The Sheffield-based company, which develops and sells electrolyster technology to turn electricity into hydrogen gas, has issued 10 million new ordinary shares to institutional investors and Peter Hargreaves, a non-executive director, at 50p per share, to raise £5m. It plans to issue a further eight million shares via an open offer that could take the total raised to around £8.9m.

Roger Putnam, non-executive chairman of the company, said: “At this crucial time in the company’s development it is important that we have a strong balance sheet to support our on-going commercial relationships. I am delighted that Peter Hargreaves, our existing institutional shareholders and some new institutions have shown their commitment to the company in this funding round.

“The board feel that it is important our existing shareholders are also given the opportunity to participate alongside our institutional shareholders and for this reason we are also making an open offer of shares to existing shareholders at the same price as the offer of shares to institutional investors.”

The business also announced its annual results yesterday which included its first “significant revenues” of £480,000. The pre-tax loss for the period for the year ended April 30, 2012, was £6.5m. The company said the outlook was “positive with early revenue streams developing”.

Prof Putnam said: “From a platform of commercially launched electrolyster products, ITM Power has successfully positioned itself to address the clear commercial opportunities within energy storage and clean fuel generation from renewable power.

“Our work to build key relationships has placed ITM Power at the heart of the two initiatives, UKH2Mobility and Ecoisland, which will define the deployment of hydrogen fuel and energy systems in the UK.”

ITM Power has won a £1.3m grant from the Technology Strategy Board to fund a hydrogen storage and vehicle refuelling system on the Isle of Wight – part of a project called Ecoisland. Meanwhile, the firm is a founding member of UKH2Mobility, a project to ensure the UK is well positioned for the commercial roll-out of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles.