Carpetright secures £15m loan from shareholder
Ahead of its planned £60m equity placing next week, embattled retailer Carpetright said on Friday that it has agreed a £15m unsecured loan from its biggest shareholder, Meditor.
Carpetright
4.96p
16:35 22/01/20
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4,411.85
15:45 15/11/24
FTSE Small Cap
6,802.32
15:45 15/11/24
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4,597.92
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Interest on the unsecured loan, which has a £2.25m arrangement fee, is 18%, and it’s due to be repaid on 31 July 2020.
"At last night’s close of 39.5p, the market cap of the company is just £28m, so we must wish them luck in tapping investors for more money post the CVA," said independent retail analyst Nick Bubb.
Shore Capital said: "We await the results of the equity raising and any relevant company guidance in the preliminary results in June after which we should be able to start modelling how the restructure and recovery of the business could look in the years to come. In the meantime, we retain our hold stance."
Carpetright managed to stave off administration at the end of last month after the majority of its shareholders approved its proposed company voluntary arrangement, but the retailer warned that trading conditions remained "difficult" and said it expected to report a full-year loss of up to £9m.
At 0855 BST, the shares were down 2.5% to 38.71p.