CloudCall (AIM: CALL), a leading cloud-based software business that integrates communications into CRM platforms, announces that it has raised approximately £3.5 million before expenses, by way of a placing of 2,457,774 new Ordinary Shares at 143.5 pence (the “Placing”). In addition, the Company has conditionally raised approximately £2.2 million, before expenses, by way of a placing of 1,505,226 new Ordinary Shares at 143.5 pence each (the “VCT/EIS Placing”), subject to receipt of advanced assurance from HMRC and to the passing of Resolutions at the General Meeting.
The Transaction was oversubscribed and the Placing Price represents a 5.3% discount to the Company’s closing price of 151.5 pence on 16 October 2017.
Transaction highlights
· Firm Placing to raise approximately £3.5 million through issue of 2,457,774 new Ordinary Shares to new and existing investors
· Conditional VCT/EIS Placing to raise further funds of approximately £2.2 million through issue of 1,505,226 new Ordinary Shares to new and existing investors
· Placing price represents a 5.3% discount*
· The Placing will allow the Group to capitalise on a number of near term growth initiatives, which the board believes will generate further Shareholder value
· Funding further de-risks growth strategy whilst simultaneously enabling the Company to accelerate growth plans beyond 2018
*Compared to closing price of 151.5 pence per share on 16 October 2017
Rationale for the Fundraising
Cloudcall seeks to accelerate a number of strategic growth initiatives following the conclusion of the Placing. Over the past 12 months, management has demonstrated the effectiveness of the Group’s focused sales strategy through accelerating integration and sales within its key CRM providers, in particular Bullhorn.
The Placing will enable the Company to broaden its CRM sales channel partner strategy and bring forward additional new product development initiatives, which include the following:
· To maximise the market opportunity of Microsoft Dynamics solution as a CRM partner
– Management seeking to replicate success achieved with Bullhorn, where deep operational integration and sales support delivers significant sales traction
– Recruitment of dedicated sales and marketing and relationship management capabilities to support CloudCall’s solution across the Microsoft Dynamics platform post October 2017 launch
· To further exploit the Group’s successful partnership with Bullhorn
– Accelerate traction through Bullhorn’s enlarged customer base, particularly post Bullhorn’s acquisition of Connexys, adding an additional 20,000 potential users across Bullhorn’s customer base for the Company to target
– Continue to focus on larger customers across the Bullhorn platform, fully leveraging existing user relationships
· To enable CloudCall to accelerate the roll out of its software solution to additional CRM partners
– Planned integration with two additional CRMs in 2018 to be supported by dedicated sales, marketing and partner management resource
· To accelerate development and implementation of additional functionality and scalability to the CloudCall platform
– Accelerate development of its Euro billing and European servicing capacity
– Development of new messaging products based around SMS and instant messaging technologies
Peter Simmonds, Non-executive Chairman of CloudCall, commented:
“We are delighted with such strong support from existing shareholders and welcome new shareholders onto the register. This support further validates our strategy of the last 18 months to focus on sizable CRM sales opportunities. These additional funds will enable us to capitalise on a number of near term sales opportunities without distracting our existing sales from Bullhorn.
“We firmly believe cultivating strong relationships with leading CRM partners will further accelerate the adoption of our solution, as demonstrated by our highly successful relationship with Bullhorn. We look forward to updating the market on our progress as we continue to deploy our solutions across new customers and partners.”
