Camden Town Brewery’s takeover by Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) won’t be the big beer deal that 2015 will be remembered for, but, for a certain group of investors it marks a very significant milestone.
The AB InBev deal, worth a reported £85mln, makes Camden Town Brewery one of the new crowdfunding success stories.
Well within a year of investors putting their money into the brewer they are now set to see “a multiple return” on their investment, according to Crowdcube.
Crowdcube, the online crowdfunding platform part owned by City broker Numis, helped the brewer raise £2,750,000 in April. A total of 2,173 investors backed the scheme.
Some 5.75% of Camden Town Brewery was owned by Crowdfunding investors following the campaign in April.
Those investors will now receive between £1.0861 and £1.2526 per share, compared to a crowdfunding subscription price of around 64p per share, depending on their preference for either payment upfront or a contingent pay out tied to Camden Town Brewery’s performance under the AB InBev umbrella over the next five years.
It means investors will see a return of between 68% and about 100%.
Luke Lang, Crowdcube co-founder, described the takeover as “great news for investors” whilst he also aimed a parting shot at finance and industry experts that he says were publicly disparaging of Camden Town Brewery’s crowdfunded valuation earlier this year.
“I expect they will be choking on their Christmas turkey following news of the company’s sale and investors’ multiple return within 12 months,” he said.