3 Jun 2009 15:16
Statement re Financing Arrangements
On 29 May 2009, JJB Sports PLC ("JJB" or the "Company") announced that the CVA Proposal (being the company voluntary arrangements proposed by the directors of the Company and its wholly owned subsidiary, Blane Leisure Limited) had become effective in accordance with its terms.
Further to that announcement, the Company is pleased to announce that it has today drawn down on its new £50,000,000 facilities provided by Bank of Scotland plc ("BoS") and Barclays Bank PLC ("Barclays") to refinance its existing facilities with those banks and repay in full its short term loan with Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander Limited (in administration). As part of the refinancing, the standstill arrangements which have been in place since December 2008 between the Company and its three lenders have been terminated.
BoS has provided a £25,000,000 revolving working capital facility which terminates on 30 September 2010.
Barclays has provided a £25,000,000 short term loan which is repayable in full on 31 August 2009. It is intended that the Barclays facility will be repaid from the deferred consideration to be received in relation to the disposal of the Fitness Clubs business, as referred to in the announcement of 25 March 2009.
In accordance with the terms of the BoS facility, the Company has today also issued 11,287,434 warrants to subscribe for ordinary shares in the Company to Uberior Trading Limited, an affiliate of BoS. As announced previously, the issue of such warrants was approved by shareholders at a General Meeting held on 29 April 2009. The key terms and conditions of these warrants were set out in the shareholder circular and Notice of General Meeting sent to shareholders on 6 April 2009.
Commenting on the refinancing, Sir David Jones, Executive Chairman, said:
"We are extremely pleased to have moved to the new financing arrangements with our lenders today, and to have terminated the standstill arrangements, under which we have been operating since December 2008.
"The successful implementation of our CVA last week and the move to our new financing arrangements today are major milestones in securing JJB's longer term future".
For further information, please contact:
| JJB Sports PLC | 01942 221 400 |
| Sir David Jones | |
| Lawrence Coppock | |
| Maitland | 020 7379 5151 |
| Neil Bennett | |
| Emma Burdett |