Patisserie Holdings avoids administration as share placing raises £15.7m: Patisserie Holdings has saved itself from administration after raising £15.7m from a share placing. The funds, together with a £10m interest-free loan from chairman Luke Johnson, gives the company the “at least” £20m required to allow it to continue trading under its current format. The placing saw more than 34 million shares sold at a heavily discounted price of 50p. The price was 429p prior to the shares being suspended on Wednesday (10 October) when the company revealed the discovery of significant and possibly fraudulent accounting irregularities. Following the placing, the company stated: “Further to the earlier announcement in relation to the proposed placing of ordinary shares, the company announces 31,451,100 ordinary shares have been placed with institutional investors and were placed at a price of 50p per share via an accelerated book-build). Canaccord Genuity acted as nominated adviser, sole book-runner and broker in connection with the placing. The placing raised about £15.7m before expenses. Following completion of the placing the company will have 135,322,452 ordinary shares in issue.” Johnson is lending £10m on a fee-free and interest-free basis. He has also provided a bridging loan of another £10m to fund the group’s immediate outstanding liabilities. That loan will be repaid from the funds raised by the placing. The company’s future has been in doubt since the accounting irregularities were discovered. Chief financial officer Chris Marsh was suspended. He has subsequently been arrested and released on bail without charge. In a statement on Friday afternoon (12 October), Patisserie Holdings said it had a net debt position of £9.8m, rather than the £28m of net cash that was announced at the end of March. It also warned its investigations were continuing and that the mis-statement of its financial position extended into previous years. The company also said it currently expected sales of about £120m and Ebitda of £12m for the year to September 2019. Analysts had previously been expecting £31m in Ebitda.