EasyHotel announces placing to fund roll-out strategy

(ShareCast News) - EasyHotel has announced plans to place up to 38m new ordinary shares at 100p per share to fund its owned hotel roll-out strategy.The placing represents about 60.8% of the ordinary shares in issue and the price is a premium of approximately 18.3% to the closing mid-market price on Tuesday.EasyHotel said the board expects the investment of new capital in the hotel pipeline to be materially earnings per share enhancing in the medium term.Chief executive Guy Parsons said: "Since IPO EasyHotel has made significant progress in line with its strategy to speed up owned hotel development and accelerate the roll-out of franchise hotels to drive high EBITDA returns on investment."With more opportunities available than had been expected, and over 4,500 rooms committed or identified in the owned and franchise development pipeline, the proceeds of the placing will primarily be used to fund the continuation of our owned hotel roll-out to deliver enhanced financial returns, whilst consolidating EasyHotel's position as a leader in the super budget hotel market in Europe and the Middle East."The proposal will be put to shareholders at a general meeting on 14 October.At 1026 BST, the shares were up 10% to 93.20p.