16 Apr 2020 13:00
16 April 2020
The City Pub Group plc
(the "Company")
Result of General Meeting and
Result of Placing and Open Offer
The City Pub Group plc completes £22m fundraising
On 27 March 2020, the Company announced a proposed Placing to raise £15 million and Open Offer to raise up to a further approximately £7 million (both amounts before expenses) through the issue of, in aggregate, up to 44,015,634 New Ordinary Shares at an issue price of 50 pence per New Ordinary Share.
The Company is pleased to announce that at its General Meeting held earlier today, all of the Resolutions set out in the circular published on 30 March 2020 were duly passed.
Further to this, the Company can now confirm that it will issue, pursuant to the Placing and Open Offer, in aggregate, 44,015,634 New Ordinary Shares at 50 pence per New Ordinary Share, raising approximately £22 million. The issue of New Ordinary Shares will be split as follows:
· 30,000,000 New Ordinary Shares under the Placing, raising gross proceeds of £15 million; and
· 14,015,634 New Ordinary Shares taken up under the Open Offer, raising gross proceeds of approximately £7 million. Valid acceptances were received from Qualifying Shareholders in respect of 10,079,095 Open Offer Shares under their Basic Entitlements, and for 24,684,811 Open Offer Shares under the Excess Application Facility. Qualifying Shareholders who have validly applied for Open Offer Shares will receive their full Basic Entitlement. Applications for Open Offer Shares under the Excess Application Facility will be scaled back pro rata to the number of Excess Shares applied for by Qualifying Shareholders under the Excess Application Facility.
Application has been made for 44,015,634 New Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and it is expected that Admission will become effective and trading will commence in the New Ordinary Shares at 8.00 a.m. on 17 April 2020.
Following Admission, the total number of voting rights in the Company is 103,759,425 (excluding 1,925,000 JSOP Shares which do not have voting rights). This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.
Clive Watson, Executive Chairman, said:
"We are delighted with the oversubscribed take up of the Open Offer demonstrating strong support from existing holders in addition to welcoming new shareholders over and above the oversubscribed £15m placing. The net effect of the money raised is that the balance sheet has been significantly strengthened with net debt cut by two thirds. We continue to run the business tightly, seeking to reduce the cash burn rate further and negotiations continue with the landlords of our leasehold pubs. We continue to be grateful to all stakeholders in the company at this challenging time and it is our goal to ensure that we take advantage of the strong position we now have when the current restrictions are lifted."
Defined terms used in this announcement will have the meanings (unless the context otherwise requires) set out in the circular dated 30 March 2020, which is available on the Company's website (www.citypubcompany.com).
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Enquiries:
City Pub Group Tel: +44 20 7559 5106
Clive Watson, Executive Chairman
Tarquin Williams, CFO
Liberum (Nomad & Joint Broker) Tel: +44 20 3100 2222
Chris Clarke / Edward Thomas / Clayton Bush
Berenberg (Joint Broker) Tel: +44 20 3207 7800
Chris Bowman / Toby Flaux / Marie Moy
Instinctif Partners Tel: +44 (0)7831379122
Matthew Smallwood