11th May 2018 09:22
LONDON (Alliance News) - Embattled floor-coverings retailer Carpetright PLC said Friday that it has secured interim funding of GBP15 million from shareholder Meditor European Master Fund Ltd to cover short-term working capital requirements.
The company, which in April implemented a company voluntary arrangement to keep itself afloat, also said that its lenders have agreed to defer the final repayment date of its revolving credit facility to December 31, 2019. The lenders have reset financial covenants of the loan in accordance with the company's revised business plan.
The GBP15 million Meditor loan has been made on an unsecured basis and bears an interest rate of 18% per annum. It is repayable by July 31, 2020.
Earlier, the retailer had secured an unsecured loan of GBP12.5 million from Meditor. The company expects to repay the GBP12.5 million loan from proceeds of its previously announced GBP60 million equity capital raise.
Carpetright said it remains on track to to launch its equity capital raising on or around May 18.
The company was forced to implement a company voluntary arrangement - a insolvency procedure allowing a company to repay debts over an agreed period of time with creditors - due to disappointing sales performance amid what it has called a tough UK consumer environment.
For its 2018 financial year, Carpetright is expecting an underlying pretax loss of between GBP7.0 million and GBP9.0 million. This would compare to an underlying pretax profit of GBP14.4 million in its prior year, itself down from GBP18.3 million the year before that.
Shares in the Essex-headquartered company were trading 2.5% lower at 38.71 pence Friday morning.
Related Shares:
CPR.L