TRG revenues down more than 50 percent

The Restaurant Group (TRG) has seen total revenues down 57% to £459.8m, for the 52 weeks ended 27 December 2020.

Adjusted EBITDA was £8.7m, compared with £136.7m in 2019, while adjusted operating profit fell to a loss of £30.5m (2019: profit of £91.1m).

In its full year results announcement this morning (10 March), the group also announced a proposed capital raise of £175m, in order to enhance liquidity, accelerate deleveraging and support selective growth.

The capital raise will take place by way of a firm placing of 95,299,430 new ordinary shares; and a placing and open offer of 79,700,570 new ordinary shares. It will be set at an offer price of 100 pence per share.

TRG recently announced that it had £500m of new debt facilities in place, and a flexible covenant package.

In its trading update for 2020, the group said it had seen an encouraging performance in all periods, when its businesses were permitted to trade, with Wagamama and its Pubs business particularly strong.

And in the current year, average standalone delivery and takeaway sales in Wagamama and Leisure stood at c.2.5x and c.5.0x pre-Covid-19 levels respectively, for the four weeks ended 28 February 2021.

It said the short-term outlook was uncertain while restrictions are in place, but that it was well positioned for relaunch when restrictions eased.

Andy Hornby, chief executive officer, TRG, said the pandemic had presented enormous challenges for the sector, “but the TRG team has responded decisively to re-structure our business whilst preserving the maximum number of long-term roles for our colleagues”.

“The capital raise announced today, alongside the debt re-financing announced last week, represents the last important step in our re-structuring process and provides TRG with the long-term flexibility to invest in growing our business.”

He said that, operationally, the business was much stronger than it was 12 months ago, adding that he believed it would emerge as one of the long-term winners.

At the end of the financial year the group operated approximately 400 restaurants and pubs, compared with 653 at the end of 2019.