Brightside to raise £9m for acquisition

Broking group Brightside is planning to raise £9m via the placing of 36 million new ordinary shares to fund its latest acquisition.

The firm will use the cash to buy the policy books, new business and renewal rights of the E-car and E-bike insurance brands for approximately £15.5m.

A further £19m will be paid on deferred consideration dependant on performance, bringing the acquisition total to £34m.

Brightside said the deal will add two complementary personal insurance lines to the group product portfolio, increasing the number of policies written by the group by more than 180,000 annual policy sales. The new ordinary shares will represent approximately 7.91% of the company's issued ordinary share capital following admission.

Brightside chief executive Paul Chase-Gardener said: “The acquisition of eCar and eBike will significantly enhance the Group?s footprint in the personal lines insurance market.

"The introduction of the eCar multi insurer panel also represents an opportunity to further accelerate the growth of this product and its earnings potential."

Brightside began acquiring the insurance broking assets owned by the Groups founder shareholders in November 2008 when it bought the policy books, new business and renewal rights of the eVan insurance brand and later entered into options to purchase the policy books and rights associated with the eCar and eBike insurance brands in December 2009.