TP ICAP plc (LON:TCAP) has fully underwritten rights issue for raising approximately £315 million ($427 million), the company announced on Thursday. The proceeds will be utilized in its acquisition of private trading operator, Liquidnet and its subsidiaries.

The London-listed company first publicized its intentions for the acquisition last September when the two parties already started talks. The companies agreed on definitive terms as TP ICAP agreed to pay between $575 million and $700 million.

The London Stock Exchange filing revealed that the company is proposing to offer 225,334,552 new ordinary shares with the rights issues. The shareholders of the company will be able to purchase shares from the rights issues at a discount of around 43.2 percent on the closing market price of TP ICAP shares on January 6.

The right issues did not come as a surprise as the company already explained its financing plans for the deal earlier. Apart from the proceeds acquired from the right’s issues, it will source $100 million from the existing debt facilities, and a further $50 million will be paid at the completion of the third year of the deal.

“This acquisition is a unique opportunity to transform TP ICAP’s growth prospects by materially accelerating our stated strategy of electronification, aggregation, and diversification,” TP ICAP CEO, Nicolas Breteau said in the statement. 

“We believe our two businesses are highly complementary, and the deal, when completed, will help us to drive growth and shareholder value in the medium to long term.”

Demand Is Marginally Down

Meanwhile, TP ICAP published a trading update for last year 1 percent lower on a constant currency basis and 2 percent lower on a reported basis for the first nine months of 2020.

“While trading volumes continued to be subdued during much of Q4 2020, we expect revenue for the full year 2020 to be 1% lower than the prior year,” the company wrote.