Rolls-Royce concludes rights issue with help of rump placing

Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC’s (LON:RR.) new shares began trading on Thursday after its £2bn rights issue was completed.

Just over 94% of its fully underwritten 10-for-3 rights issue was taken up after it closed for acceptances a day earlier at a price of 32p per new share.

With the company receiving valid acceptances in respect of 6.06bn shares, its large band of brokers BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Jefferies, Morgan Stanley, Crédit Agricole CIB, Santander, SMBC Nikko and Société Générale found buyers for the remaining 375,096,792 shares at a price of 90p apiece.

The engine maker’s share price earlier this week jumped from below 70p to above 120p after positive news emerged about the coronavirus vaccine which will provide a boost to the travel sector and feed through to the company by supporting aeroplane sales and after-sales.

On Thursday afternoon, the FTSE 100 firm’s shares were down 8% to 90.52p.