AO World raises £50m

News of a £50m fundraising via the placement of new shares is bound to have gone down badly with retail investors in AO World (AO.). The company, whose shares have lost close to two-thirds of their IPO value since floating in 2014, said the money would be used to fund the company's expansion plans in Europe. Simultaneously, the company said via a trading statement that revenues for the year to 31 March 2017 should grow by 17 per cent to £700m, although the plan is still to reinvest the majority of profits in its embryonic European arm.