Valletta real estate firm VBL Group on Friday announced that it has raised a total of €295,500 from a subscription of 1,136,538 ordinary shares through a private placement.

The shares had a nominal value of €0.20 with a premium of €0.06, with a total price of €0.26. The company confirmed that they are all fully paid up.

The share issue was first announced back in June, when the company, which dubs itself as the largest private landowner in Malta’s capital, stated that it will be issuing new ordinary shares up to a total of €1 million after identifying “a number of potential private investors which have shown an interest in the subscription of new shares, with a view of raising new equity capital on a private placement basis”.

VBL Group started the process of reviewing various strategic options last March, in a bid to develop itself further and work towards continuous expansion within its core market.

In this respect, it considered a number of options, including the possibility of raising further capital from strategic or financial investors, or by possibly carrying out equity transactions.

The company launched in 2012 and has a diversified portfolio of residential, hospitality, commercial, and office space located in Valletta. It registered record results in 2022, with pre-tax profit going up to €6.6 million, prompting it to increase its dividend by 12.5 per cent.