Oakhill plc has raised €15 million gross in a placing it intends to use for investment in its businesses and the making of acquisitions.

Group executive chairman Peter Lynch said he intended creating a "war chest" of €50 million, approximately €30 million of which would be borrowed from banks.

An extraordinary general meeting is to be held on July 25th at which shareholders will be asked to approve the placing and the changing of the IEX and AIM-listed group's name to Prime Active Capital plc.

Goodbody Stockbrokers handled the placing of 42,857,143 shares at €0.35 per share. Mr Lynch said the placing had been oversubscribed but he did not want to go over €15 million as he did not want to dilute the value of existing shares excessively.

He said the group would invest in or acquire underperforming assets in sectors where the board has significant experience. These sectors include financial services, telecommunications, digital media, print and property.

In a briefing to the media, Mr Lynch said he did not envisage the group making acquisitions in Ireland for reasons to do with scale and value. He said Britain has "great assets".

Mr Lynch said the group would have three aspects to its strategy. It would "buy and fix" businesses in selected sectors. It would also go into partnership with private equity firms to purchase businesses and provide management skills to those businesses. The intention would be to improve the businesses, pay off the private equity firms, and then retain the businesses as part of the group.

It would also invest in and become involved in companies where venture capitalists or private equity houses had made investments but were encountering difficulties, and would invite in Prime Active Capital for its operational skills.

Mr Lynch said there was "so much private equity about" that every company was "in play". However, he believed interest rate increases were putting some highly geared companies under strain and he had "no doubt there was going to be a lot of trouble". He believed there would in time be a greater emphasis put on operational management skills.

The Oakhill group has two businesses: a managed services business, which includes card services, transactional mail, card production and related fulfilment services; and an academic books and journals printing business.

Mr Lynch said that, after his review of the group's businesses, he did not see anything he would dispose of. The group employs 320 people.

Oakhill disclosed yesterday that non-recurring reorganisational costs incurred prior to the appointment of the current board were approximately €1.5 million. Mr Lynch said this money was paid to advisers and to departing senior management.

Mr Lynch was appointed executive chairman of Oakhill in April. He holds a 20 per cent stake.

The egm will also be asked to approve the consolidation of Oakhill's ordinary share capital on the basis of one new ordinary share of €0.50 for every five existing €0.10 ordinary shares.