Shares of LBG Media plc, the Manchester-based digital media and youth content publisher of Ladbible and other news brands including Sportbible and Tyla, rose more than 10% on Wednesday as the firm made its debut on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange.

“The successful fundraising included the placing of 17,142,857 new shares and the placing of 46,323,368 existing shares, both at a price of 175p per share, raising gross proceeds of £30.0 million for the company and £81.1 million for selling shareholders,” said LBG Media.

“At the placing price the company’s market capitalisation will be approximately £360 million.

“Immediately following admission, there will be 205,714,286 ordinary shares in issue.”

Zeus Capital acted as nominated advisor and sole broker on the placing and IPO.

Solly Solomou and Arian Kalantari, co-founders of LBG Media, said: “Today is an important day for everyone at LBG Media and we’d like to thank our incredibly hard-working and talented team for helping us achieve this milestone.

“Back when we founded the company in 2012 we were looking for a way to engage with young people just like us and we are incredibly proud that what we created back then now has over 262 million social media followers worldwide.

“We remain committed to creating exciting, engaging and socially responsible content that gives the youth generation a voice and appropriately represents their interests.

”The reception we have received from investors has been very positive and we are excited to be embarking on the next of phase of our growth story with the listing on AIM providing us with the platform to continue to grow well into the future.”