Days after completing the $16 million purchase of parts of failed rival Ovato, Ive Group has announced it has raised $18 million from existing and new institutional investors.

The placement includes about eight million new ordinary shares issued at $5.25 apiece ($18 million), and coincides with the Selig family’s non-underwritten sell-down of 4.5 million shares ($10.125 million) at the same price.

In a presentation to accompany yesterday’s announcement, executive chairman Geoff Selig said his family “currently have no intention” of selling further shares. Existing shareholders are also being offered the opportunity to increase their holdings, raising a further $2 million.

The group says the capital raising will allow it to go ahead with previously announced initiatives including the Lasoo ecommerce marketplace and enable more “opportunistic ‘bolt-on’ and/or strategic acquisitions” in packaging.

The company, which traces its history to Oscar Selig’s print shop in Sydney’s Balmain in 1921 and the launch of local newspaper The Link that year, partially attributes growth to timely investments.

It launched on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2015, and bought rivals including Franklin Web the following year. This year competition regulator the ACCC gave permission for Ive Group to acquire parts of failed rival Ovato – which had been formed at the same time – from the administrator.

Pictures (from the Ive Group video): Oscar Selig in 1921; the Selig printery and first edition of The Link; a web press, and the Ive brand goes up at Phil Taylor’s Franklin Web in the Melbourne suburb of Sunshine.