Versarien, the Forest of Dean-based advanced materials engineering group, has announced it has raised £400,000 (before expenses) by way of a share placing.

The placing is of 500 million new ordinary shares in the capital of the company at a price of 0.08 pence per share.

Versarien says the net proceeds of the placing will be used for corporate and working capital purposes as the company seeks to capitalise on the growing number of opportunities in its pipeline whilst continuing to progress its asset sales.

Recent new projects include a sales agreement with Go To Gym to bring Graphene‐WearTM products to Colombia, Brazil and the USA, and Versarien's subsidiary, Gnanomat, entering into an agreement to co‐develop advanced materials with IRPC, a Thai petroleum and petrochemical company.

"These projects, along with a pipeline of other opportunities currently being pursued, demonstrate the longer term prospects for the business," the company said.

As announced on 20 December 2023, the mature businesses and the intellectual property and plant acquired from Hanwha Aerospace in 2020 continue to be marketed for sale and the company is progressing discussions with a number of interested parties, though the timing of any asset sales and the quantum of the funds that may be received remains uncertain.

The company says the issue of the placing shares is within existing authorities granted by shareholders at the general meeting of the company held on January 10 and therefore no shareholder approval is required for the placing.

Stephen Hodge, chief executive officer of Versarien, said: commented: "In the short time since the company update announced on December 20, the commercial, licensing and grant opportunities have continued to grow.

"This further funding will help us to progress the conversion of these leads while the asset sale discussions continue. We look forward to updating the market in due course."