Edinburgh-based Craneware, a software firm that specializes in the US healthcare market, said late on Tuesday it plans to raise £80 million to fund acquisitions via a sale of new shares.

The shares to be placed with investors are expected to represent 20% of the company’s current issued share capital.

“Craneware … today announces a proposed placing to institutional investors of new ordinary shares of one pence each to raise approximately £80 million …” said Craneware.

” …the board has identified a small number of acquisition opportunities which it believes provide the company with compelling synergistic benefits through a combination of: extending the company’s customer coverage across US healthcare providers; adding proprietary technologies, expert knowledge and application extensions; and increasing the company’s scale …

” … these potential opportunities vary in size and complexity and the board does not expect to complete all of them.

“The board believes that executing the placing would position the company to best be able to take advantage of the acquisition opportunities.

“In particular, one of the possible acquisition targets is in a sale process and the placing is an important step to potentially gaining exclusivity and undertaking due diligence in that process …

” … Keith Neilson (CEO), Craig Preston (CFO) and Will Whitehorn (Chairman) all of whom are UK based directors of the company intend to participate in the placing, amounting to approximately $315,000 in aggregate.”