Online grocer Ocado has placed £143.2m worth of shares with investors despite a wobble in its share price after it served up the unwelcome news of a profit warning and an annual loss.

The issue of about 5pc of additional share capital priced at 455p represented a discount of 1.46pc to the middle market price at the time that the company and its banks agreed the placing price, partly due to stock markets coming under pressure globally this week.

Ocado plans to spend the cash raised on technology projects and on growing its “solutions” division, which handles the group’s partnerships with other retailers.

The retailer says it is spending heavily to fund its transformation into a technology company and warned that its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) would “reflect the fixed costs of our largest ever CFC [customer fulfillment centre] in Erith, the ramp-up of our proprietary solution in both Andover and Erith, and an acceleration in the development of our platform".

Ocado made a £500,000 pre-tax loss in 2017, compared with a £12m profit the previous year. It said that it expects its earnings to improve “significantly” in 2019.

The largest chunk, 27pc, of Ocado’s capital expenditure was spent on its push into technology. The company invested £42.8m on technology last year, up from £34.3m the previous year. The company is developing proprietary software and has also increased its technology staff to 1,100.