Rank Group raises £70m through shares placement to “strengthen balance sheet”
Rank Group has announced it has raised £70m ($92m) through a fundraising scheme consisting of a share placing and retail offer, to help it operate through the “challenging trading environment.”
The casino operator placed 76,736,762 shares conditionally through joint bookrunners Peel Hunt and Goodbody Stockbrokers at an issue price of 90 pence per share, representing a premium of 4% to the closing price on the last day prior to the competition of the placing on 5 November.
Additionally, the group subscribed a further 1,009,258 of new ordinary shares at the placing price using the PrimaryBid platform as a retail offer.
That means in total, the fundraising scheme comprised of 77,746,020 new ordinary shares representing 20% of the existing share capital, raising proceeds of £70m.
The operator said the proceeds will “strengthen the company’s balance sheet, in order to maintain appropriate liquidity covenant headroom on its debt facilities under various trading scenarios, provide ample working capital to operate through this challenging trading environment, and enable the company to continue to deliver on its transformation 2.0 programme.”
The placement comes at a time Rank Group’s underlying net gaming revenue (NGR) fell 15% year-on-year for the 12 months ending 30 June 2020, down to £585.1m, with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing closures to its casino venues and bingo halls. Such venues in England closed again on 5 November until at least 2 December, as a result of further lockdown measures announced by the UK government.
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