(Alliance News) - Applegreen PLC on Wednesday highlighted its good performance in May and June as it said its subsidiary Welcome Break has repurposed GBP25 million of a capital expenditure facility in its existing banking facilities into a revolving credit facility.
The Irish petrol forecourt retailer said the lenders to UK motorway rest-stop division Welcome Break also have agreed to relax or remove covenant conditions for tests until June 2021. As at last Friday, the subsidiary had available cash of over GBP30 million, in addition to the new undrawn facilities of GBP25 million.
Applegreen added that Welcome Break has traded in line its expectations for May and June, stating that the business has now reopened a significant number of its food and beverage offerings to meet demand following the relaxation of travel restrictions in early June.
Turning to the performance of the remainder of its business, Dublin-based Applegreen said it has continued to trade ahead of its Covid-19 projections for both May and June, driven by strong store sales in the local petrol filling station sites, good fuel margins and extensive cost saving measures. Cash balances for this part of the business were over EUR60 million with undrawn facilties of EUR64 million.
Looking ahead, it said: "We welcome the UK government's recent announcement which will see further substantial lifting of restrictions from July 4 which we expect to drive further traffic increases on the road network."
The stock was trading 1.5% lower at 330.00 pence each on Wednesday morning in London, but 29% lower than at the beginning of the year.
By Ife Taiwo; ifetaiwo@alliancenews.com.
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