Last week, independent brewery BrewDog announced it is seeking to raise capital with equity crowdfunding once again but this time they are going big. The company’s Equity for Punks pitch launched to raise £25 million, which will be the largest equity crowdfunding round in the UK to date. This is the 4th time Scotland’s largest craft brewer has gone to its fans and supporters to raise capital.
James Watt, co-founder of BrewDog, announced at that time:
“Equity for Punks is about so much more than a simple financial investment, it’s about a group of libertines coming together to change the world. This is about a generation of change-makers ignoring the status quo and building a brand new future in a social economy with a different balance of power.
“We already have 14,568 passionate shareholders and with this new round we invite tens of thousands more to join the craft beer revolution and help us change the world forever.
“We are redefining the relationship between brands and their customers, redressing the balance between passion and profit and bringing the power back to the people.”
Unfortunately, according to The Guardian, the brewery is now admitting there were some errors in its documentation. BrewDog has revealed that the pitch isn’t actually “UKLA approved” (UK Listing Authority, part of the Financial Conduct Authority). The brewer stated that its lawyers have requested a “few legal updates” to materials it sent out last week about the offer to buy its shares on its own investing platform:
“Our press releases described the Equity for Punks share offer as a ‘UKLA accredited investment scheme’ or a ‘UKLA approved investment’. This is not correct.”
The company continued:
“You should note that the UKLA can’t comment on the merits of investing with us and don’t endorse any share offers, they have only approved our investment prospectus.”
BrewDog also told investors to “ignore the point we made in our email about the past increase in value” from previous investment projects. This is because it “isn’t something we specifically talked about in our prospectus and have not sought to verify for those purposes which means that we can’t mention it in communications regarding this offer.”
The media outlet went on to add that when asked about the clarification, Watt stated that BrewDog wanted to be as open with investors as possible and wanted to be completely compliant with regulations.
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