Colliers CRE announces re-financing deal
Pub sales agent Colliers CRE plans to raise £20m through a share issue to supplement £8.9m raised from equity group FirstService Real Estate Advisors, who will now take a 29.99% stake in the company.
Colliers, which was recently appointed to sell 68 Punch pubs, suspended its shares from trading on the Alternative Investment Market last week in order to conduct a substantial refinancing including equity fund raising.
The company offers estate consultancy services on a range of commercial properties, including pubs, and claims to be one of the top 10 property companies in the UK in terms of turnover and market share with 294 offices in 61 countries.
It hopes to raise £20m through the issue of 100,000 new shares at a price of 20p a share through its appointed broker Panmure Gordon. It is expected that trading of the new shares will start on 29 October.
Colliers reported that revenues had fallen 32% to £27.07m for the six months to 30 June in "market conditions among the most difficult faced by the industry".
It made an operating loss of £7.86m, compared to a loss of £.24m the previous year. The loss before tax was £11.84m compared to £4.49m last year. Following the re-financing, net debt should be reduced to around £7m.
"We are at last seeing some upturn in market conditions as sentiment and activity levels improve," said chief executive David Izett.
"There are some increases in transactions but we should remain cautious until we see evidence of sustained improvement.
"Both the investment in the Company by FirstService, which is a major step in the consolidation of Colliers, and the strengthening of our balance sheet with the new financing, will place us in an excellent position to take advantage of improvement in the market in the months and years ahead."
