Workspace shareholders have bought up only half of the shares offered in its £87.2m rights issue in January.

Despite being offered at a discount of 69% to the shareprice the day before the issue, the flexible workspace provider could only attract valid acceptances from 49% of shareholders.

The banks that underwrote the rights issue NM Rothschild, Panmure Gordon and Investec, have been left with 51% of the shares.

The shares currently trade at 10p, which is the same price at which they were being offered in the rights issue.

In January the REIT was the first to issue 871.8m shares, on the basis of five new shares for every existing share, in order to pay off £50m of debt to GE and obtain a covenant extension from GE and Royal Bank of Scotland if it raised more than £65m.

In a show of commitment to the future of the company, £6.49m was raised by directors of the company.

The chairman and three non-executive directors took up their rights in full, while of the executive directors, one took up his full allocation, another took up 90%, and another took up 53% of his entitlement.

Tony Hales, chairman of Workspace, said: ‘The proceeds of the rights issue leave the company in a stronger financial position, and better placed to deal with current market conditions. The board views the future with confidence which is reflected by the directors subscribing for the overwhelming majority of their rights under the offer.’