The FTSE 250-listed insurer said, under the rights issue, shareholders can apply for 7 new shares for every 15 existing ones held at a price of 518p each

In mid-morning trading, Phoenix shares were trading at 782p each, up 1.3% on last night’s closing price

( ) has launched a fully underwritten rights issue to raise gross proceeds of approximately £950mln to be used to fund part of the cash consideration for its proposed acquisition of Assurance Limited.

The FTSE 250-listed insurer said, under the rights issue, shareholders can apply for 7 new shares for every 15 existing ones held at a price of 518p each.

In mid-morning trading, Phoenix shares were trading at 782p each, up 1.3% on last night’s closing price.

The rights price represents a 25.1% discount to the theoretical ex-rights price of 691p per share calculated by reference to the closing price on 29 May 2018.

The rights issue will result in the issue of 183,522,385 new shares, representing approximately 46.7% of Phoenix’s existing issued share capital and approximately 31.8% of the enlarged issued share capital.

Phoenix announced the acquisition of Assurance from FTSE 100-listed asset manager Aberdeen PLC ( ), on 23 February 2018, for a total consideration of £1.971bn plus the issue of shares equivalent to an approximately 19.99% stake in the enlarged group.

The group said the rights issue is fully underwritten by Bank PLC, Merrill Lynch International, JP Morgan Securities.