.
G8 Education Limited (ASX:GEM) has again expanded its portfolio through the acquisition of 20 childcare and education centres and announced a about $100 million equity raising.
The equity raising will be conducted thorough an institutional placement at an issue price of $4.91 per share and proceeds put to funding its acquisitions.
The provider of developmental and educational child care services says it has contracts in place for the right to acquire the centres from a number of different vendors.
17 centres will be acquired for $24.35 million with an extra payment of $1.3 million conditional on performance targets.
The remaining three centres will be purchased for $12.35 million and are centres over which the company had options to purchase.
The latest acquisitions are expected to settle before the end of February 2015 and will be immediately earnings per share accretive.
G8 Education reported a net profit of $16.3 million in the first half of the 2014 calendar year.
(20min delay)