Eclectic, the Avanti Capital-backed bar and club operator led by Reuben Harley, has successfully raised £15m through its proposed admission to trading on AIM on 28 November.
The 19-strong group has conditionally placed a total of 6,562,500 new ordinary shares at a price of 160p per ordinary share raising c£10.5m.
The market capitalisation of Eclectic on admission will be approximately £20.6m.
In addition, a further 2,835,861 ordinary shares held by the group’s principal shareholder, Avanti Capital, will be sold at the placing price pursuant to the placing for approximately £4.5m enabling Avanti to sell down completely its shareholding in the company.
Eclectic will use the net proceeds of the placing to repay a shareholder loan owed to Avanti of approximately £7.3m with surplus net funds raised of approximately £1.8m to be used to fund growth prospects and new site acquisition opportunities.
Immediately following admission, management will hold 27% of the ordinary shares which will be subject to a 12 month lock-in period.
Admission to AIM and the commencement of dealings are expected to begin at 8.00 am on 28 November 2013 under the ticker symbol BAR.
Panmure Gordon is acting as nominated adviser and broker to the group.
Harley, chief executive, said: “We are delighted with the support and reception that we have received from investors resulting in additional funds being raised allowing Avanti to exit completely and Eclectic to begin life on AIM with a larger free float and a supportive institutional shareholder base. We now have an optimum capital structure and experienced management team to continue to grow the business.”
Harley told M&C that the group had a strong pipeline in place for future openings, with Lola Lo and Sakura set to be the company’s growth brands.
Last month, M&C Report revealed that the company had bought Coyote Wild in Victoria Street, Derby - its first freehold acquisition - from PBR for an undisclosed sum. The Grade II-listed building will trade in its current form until next year when the venue will be rebranded as Eclectic’s Polynesian-themed Lola Lo concept. It is believed to be close to securing an unnamed site in Manchester for conversion to Lola Lo.
It also recently acquired Brighton nightclub and live music venue Coalition from InnBrighton, which is set to trade under the same format for the next 12 months as the group assess what development opportunities there are for the site.
Harley said that Dirty Blonde, its New York-themed format, could eventually roll out to five or six sites and he revealed that Eclectic currently has offers made on “several” outlets.
He said: “We believe there are still plenty of opportunities to expand across the UK, but especially in the south east, in towns and cities like Brighton, plus inside and around the M25. We also have no presence in placed like Leeds and Liverpool. Through managing the former PBR sites in these places we have been able to see how the circuits work there and take learnings from that. It gave us a good feel of the demographics and we are confident that we have the offer to work there as well.”
