Ockham Holdings plc has announced it plans to raise £25m via a placing and open offer at 34.5p per share on the basis of 17 new shares for 30 existing shares. The proceeds are intended to provide additional capital for Ockham's subsidiary, Highway Insurance Co Ltd.
The company said that if the placing and open offer did not proceed the board would operate the business "within the existing capital constraints of the group".
It added: "This will result in fewer policies being written as rates continue to increase. Such a reduction in future policy count could impact negatively on the group's potential profitability."
The company announced that it had also received a tentative bid approach but said "it is too early to say whether this will develop further".
Ockham is due to release full year results on 18 April. It estimates, in the absence of unforeseen circumstances, that it has made a pretax profit for the year ended 31 December 2001 of at least £10m.
