Symphony raises significant funds through equity investment

Symphony Environmental Technologies has detailed a major new equity investment in the company by the placing of 15,750,000 ordinary shares at 0.10 GBP (0.16 USD), which was announced to the stock market today (November 17).

Symphony raises significant funds through equity investment

The price represents a significant premium over the closing price on November 14, and will generate proceeds of £1,575,000 (around 2.5 million USD).

AIM-listed Symphony Environmental Technologies, a specialist in plastic technology, described the investment program as a ‘huge vote of confidence by external investors’, and by its own chief executive officer Michael Laurier, who will be buying 750,000 of the new shares himself.

Symphony Environmental Technologies is well-known for its d2w controlled-life plastic technology, which turns ordinary plastic at the end of its service-life into biodegradable materials which can be bio-assimilated in the open environment in the same way as a leaf. In nine countries this type of biodegradable plastic is already mandatory. It has also developed a range of additives, concentrates and masterbatches marketed as d2p which can be incorporated in a wide variety of plastic and non-plastic products to give them protection against many different types of bacteria, fungi, algae, mold and insects.

Its d2t anti-counterfeiting product provides a unique trace system that is added at the manufacturing stage of packaging materials. Once d2t is added to any plastic it is then used to determine whether a product is genuine. A d2Detector, also provided by Symphony Environmental Technologies, is able to read the exact content of packaging materials and detect d2t.

In addition, Symphony Recycling Technologies is developing recycling systems to convert scrap tires and other waste streams into valuable products.

The external investors are the Somerston Group, whose managing director Shaun Robinson said: ‘We are really excited to have the opportunity to invest in Symphony Environmental Technologies to rapidly progress the commercialization of its technologies.

‘Symphony has a very exciting range of technologies which will deliver major public health and economic benefits for developed and developing nations. In particular its antimicrobial range will help to reduce food waste, and the use of artificial preservatives.’

Somerston Group was founded in 1854 as a shipping business which commissioned, financed, operated and managed a fleet of merchant vessels in its own right, and in partnership with co-investors. In the 1960s, the company began to diversify its interests and, by 1975, the last of the shipping interests had been sold and property investment, land development and resources had become the principal focus. Its activities gradually expanded and the group is now engaged in a variety of asset backed investment and development ventures in Europe and North America.

Robinson is also joining the Symphony Environmental Technologies board as a non-executive director.

Symphony Environmental Technologies works with 74 distributors around the world, and products made with its plastic technologies are now available in 97countries and in many different product applications.

Earlier this summer, the company detailed some of the advances it has made in 2014.

Laurier said: ‘We are delighted that the Somerston Group has shown this level of confidence in our business. Our range of smart plastics – branded d2p, d2w and d2t – is now available in more than 90 countries, and this important investment will help us to accelerate our global development program.’