Seeing Machines raises 15m pounds to speed growth

29th Nov 2013 11:26

Face- and eye-tracking software developer Seeing Machines has raised at least 15m pounds with new and existing institutional shareholders at a heavy discount to its recent price as it looks to capitalise on commercial opportunities. The oversubscribed London placing was priced at 5p despite the shares having recently risen above 7p on the back of recent contract wins with major resources companies for its Driver State System (DSS) for monitoring fatigue of transport vehicle drivers. A second "Australian and overseas offer" to raise up to £1m will be made at a similar level to the placing price.Chief Executive Ken Kroeger said: "We are very pleased with the success of this capital raising as the funds will strengthen our balance sheet and enable us to take advantage of some of the compelling opportunities available to us."AIM-listed Seeing Machines, which won a A$1.5m contract with BHP Billiton in September and another with Freeport-McMoRan worth A$0.8m in mid-November, said the first tranche of new shares would be admitted to market on December 4th and a second tranche on New Year's Eve.The net proceeds of the total capital raising will provide the company with working capital and further flexibility to pursue its development strategy, it said. It said it planned to allocate capital to continue to develop its mine site solution and "to grow a greater presence in the road transport, aviation safety and, over time, consumer electronics markets, alongside key partners".Shares in the company were down 3.3% on Friday to 7.13p at 14:42.OH