Shaires Initial Portfolio, Retail Offer and Capital Access Window
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Shaires
/ Key word(s): Miscellaneous
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the UK version of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended. Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain. Shaires Holdings Ltd LONDON, Aug. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Shaires Holdings Ltd (AIM: SHR), the publicly quoted London investment company providing investors with exposure to leading private mid-and late-stage global technology and AI companies, is pleased to announce several new initiatives today. Highlights include:
Initial Portfolio In order to establish its initial investment portfolio, the Company has entered into binding option agreements to purchase up to US$40 million of interests in special purpose vehicles (“SPVs”) managed by Rizvi Traverse (a company connected to Suhail Rizvi, Executive Chairman of Shaires and a related party to the Company), that provide exposure to some of the world’s most significant private technology companies:
In addition, the Company has entered into a subscription agreement with a third-party SPV providing exposure to ByteDance (US$15.0 million), the leading global technology group behind TikTok, Douyin and Doubao. The Company has also entered into a subscription agreement to acquire an interest in Moonshot AI (US$5.0 million), the leading Chinese AI lab behind the Kimi series of open-source models. Furthermore, as part of its in-kind, share-for-share contribution programme, the Company has entered into contribution agreements with certain counterparties that are contributing US$14.8 million of interests in SPVs providing exposure to SandboxAQ, a leading AI and quantum computing company as well as U$12.0 million of shares in Colossal Biosciences, an advanced genetics and biosciences company working on “de-extinction”. The aggregate total maximum value of all the initial commitments amounts to US$86.7 million.
The Company is in advanced discussions regarding further investments into leading private technology and AI companies and will provide regular updates when definitive agreements are signed, in keeping with the Company’s intention to build a portfolio in excess of US$500 million in the near-term. These opportunities are at varying stages of negotiation and documentation and there is no certainty that any will be completed. The initial portfolio will be funded, in part, by the Company’s institutional raise, conducted through direct subscriptions for new ordinary shares at US$20.00 per share, under which a first tranche of US$28.5 million has been completed through the subscription of 1,424,000 new ordinary shares as announced on 30 July 2026. The investments in SandboxAQ and Colossal Biosciences as part of the in-kind programme are funded by the issuance of 1,341,821 new ordinary shares (“Contribution Shares”). Under the in-kind programme, the Company will issue new ordinary shares at $20.00 per share. Retail Offer As announced in a separate release a retail offer (“WRAP Retail Offer”), managed by Marex, is being launched today at a price of $20.00 per share, the same price as the initial institutional raise. The Company’s capital raising programme is ongoing: a second institutional tranche is in progress alongside the retail offer. Across the two institutional tranches, in-kind programme and the retail offer, the Company is targeting a total raise of US$100 million. Further updates on the fundraise will be provided in due course. Capital Access Window Following the updates to the AIM Rules for Companies announced earlier this month, the Company has decided to utilise a Capital Access Window. This is a voluntary pause to the trading of a Company’s shares to make it easier for companies to reach a broader range of investors, including retail investors, during a fundraise. From 07:30am today, the Company’s shares will enter a Capital Access Window until a further announcement is made detailing the close of the WRAP Retail Offer. New Shares Admission and Total Voting Rights Due to adjustments for fractions in the share consolidation that took place on 9 June 2026 being accounted for in error, the number of the Company’s number of shares outstanding incorrectly included 15 shares. The actual number of shares outstanding as of today is 2,499,989 and not 2,500,004 as previously stated. Furthermore, an application will be made for the 741,821 Consideration Shares related to the investment in SandboxAQ and the 600,000 Consideration Shares related to the investment in Colossal Biosciences (together 1,341,821 Consideration Shares) to be admitted to trading on AIM (“Admission”), with admission expected on or around 21 August 2026. In accordance with the provisions of the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority, the Company confirms that, following Admission, the Company will have 3,841,810 ordinary shares in issue and no ordinary shares held in treasury. The above figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations to determine if they are required to notify their interests in, or change to their interest in, the Company. All the ordinary shares have equal voting rights. Board and Management Comments Suhail Rizvi, Executive Chairman of Shaires, said: “This is the point in the AI cycle we have been waiting for. The pioneering phase of AI, when investors were funding an idea and a team, has largely passed. In front of us now is a set of companies that have crossed from promise into performance. These businesses have products, customers and revenue, and in our judgement most of their adoption is still ahead of them. “What is scarce at this stage is an orderly route to liquidity for the people who built these companies. Employees and early shareholders hold stock they cannot easily sell. Their alternatives are a fragmented secondary market or several more years of waiting for an event that may never arrive. “Shaires can be the single long-term holder on the other side of that, with no obligation to sell to a timetable. That is what earns us access, and what we intend to keep building on.” Vivek Seth, CEO of Shaires, said: “This team has been investing in private technology companies together for close to thirty years, and we have kept coming back to the same conversation. The defining companies of this cycle are being built and repriced entirely in private, and by the time they reach public markets much of the value creation has already happened. “Shaires is our answer to that: a permanent vehicle listed in London, where an institution, a retail investor buying through a platform and a founder contributing their own stock all end up owning exactly the same thing, at the same price, at the same time. “Look at what sits in it: Anthropic, Stripe, ByteDance, Figure AI, SandboxAQ, Moonshot AI, Colossal Biosciences. Elsewhere in public markets, these names might appear as a fraction of a fund or a line item in somebody else’s portfolio. Here, they are the whole point of the company. “We chose London deliberately. Being quoted on AIM allowed us to build Shaires as an internally managed company rather than an externally managed fund. That structure puts management, public shareholders and in-kind contributors on the same terms. We would rather be invited in than be one more name in a crowded market. London is at an inflection point of its own, and we are pleased to be arriving as that renewal begins.” Further announcements regarding the Company’s investment portfolio, additional capital raising activities and strategic developments will be made as and when appropriate. Investor Meet Company Webinar CEO Vivek Seth will provide a company presentation via Investor Meet Company on Friday 14 August 2026 at 14:00 BST. The presentation is open to all existing and potential shareholders. Questions can be submitted pre-event via your Investor Meet Company dashboard up until 09:00 BST on Friday 14 August 2026, or at any time during the presentation. Investors can sign up to Investor Meet Company for free and add to meet SHAIRES HOLDINGS LTD via: https://www.investormeetcompany.com/shaires-holdings-ltd-1/register-investor. Investors who already follow SHAIRES HOLDINGS LTD on the Investor Meet Company platform will automatically be invited. Enquiries
About Shaires Holdings Ltd Shaires Holdings Limited (AIM: SHR) is a publicly quoted London investment company that provides public market investors with concentrated exposure to leading private mid- and late-stage technology companies, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence. The Company is internally managed and charges no management or performance fees. In addition to cash investments, the Company may acquire positions through in-kind (in specie) contributions, whereby employees and early shareholders of private technology companies may exchange eligible holdings for new ordinary shares in the Company, therefore providing them liquidity and diversification. Through this mechanism, public-market investors gain access to an asset class historically closed to them. With an emerging megatrend of large frontier AI companies vertically integrating their business throughout the value chain from modelling through to chips and services, the Shaires board and management believe that they have the right methodology and strategy to provide capital to the best next-generation businesses. Further information is available at www.shaires-holdings.com. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. Anthropic, Stripe, ByteDance, Moonshot AI, Figure AI, SandboxAQ and Colossal Biosciences figures are unaudited estimates or management reported. Nothing in this announcement is investment advice or a recommendation. The value of investments can go down as well as up.
13.08.2026 CET/CEST Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by EQS News – a service of EQS Group. |
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View original content:2382038 13.08.2026 CET/CEST