WH Smith raises £166m through share placing

WH Smith has raised £166m through a share placing in efforts to shore up its finances amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

A total of 15,751,826 new ordinary shares were placed at 1050p per share, with existing and new investors. The move raised a total of £165.9m for the group. 

The placing represents a discount of 4.0% to the closing share price of 1,094 pence reported yesterday (6 April).

News of the share placing follows the group’s announcement yesterday that it planned to issue equity in order to secure a £120m lending facility.

Due to the “uncertain” period of trading, the group had planned to secure the loan in order to strengthen its balance sheet, working capital and liquidity position to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.  

The group can now access the £120m lending facility that was dependent on the equity being raised. 

WH Smith also provided a brief trading update amid the pandemic, revealing that total group revenue for March had fallen by 25%. 

Due to store closures, revenues across the group were down by 85% year-on-year in the latest week of trading. 

The group expects revenue for April to be down by approximately £114m, marking a 90% decline year-on-year, with a reduction in operating profit of £39m compared to last year. 

CEO Carl Cowling said: “While the Group made good progress in the first half of the financial year, the outbreak of Covid-19 has had a significant impact on both our Travel and High Street businesses. 

“We continue to operate c.30% of our UK store portfolio ensuring we keep our stores open in the communities that most need our services at this critical time.”

He added: “We are a resilient business and with the new financing arrangements announced today, together with our continued focus on managing cost, we are in a strong position to navigate through this time of uncertainty and are well positioned to benefit from the normalisation and growth of our key markets.”