Capital to raise a further £8.8m
The Capital Pub Company is to launch a second enterprise investment scheme (EIS) in a bid to raise a further £8.8m of new money.
This will be the second round of fund-raising undertaken by the company, which operates pubs in and around London.
Last year it raised close to £8m through an identical scheme, against a backdrop of market volatility and a potential downturn.
The company was founded by pub entrepreneurs David Bruce and Clive Watson in February last year. Both have a solid track record in the industry.
Mr Bruce (pictured on right) created the Firkin chain and helped to roll-out the Slug and Lettuce chain nationally. Mr Watson (pictured on left) was formerly finance director at Regent Inns and the guided the company to flotation. He was also a director at Tup Inns and Tom Hoskins.
An enterprise investment scheme is a way for unquoted companies to raise cash for growth with listing on a stock exchange. It offers tax breaks to investors to encourage them to place money into such ventures.
The £8m raised last year was a record for an EIS scheme and attracted 312 individual private investors. The scheme will be sponsored by Noble & Company, the Edinburgh-based merchant.
Such schemes are a relatively short-term measure, usually lasting three to four years, at the end of which, the shares will be sold to new investors - existing shareholders can exit the business and realise potential gains.
Mr Bruce and Mr Watson also plan to exit the business by 2005, through either a stock market listing or a trade sale.
Since its inception, last February, the company has been on the acquisition trail, snapping up five pubs in central London. The company says the outlets, located in Battersea, the City, Holborn, King's Cross and Whitechapel, are the first of many.
Mr Bruce said the company was close to completion on a further two pubs. Advised by the Business Sales Group, Capital has a further four sites in the pipeline.
The company is focused on strong-performing "good old-fashioned boozers", with a target wet trade of at least 80 per cent. It aims to build a business initially comprising 30 pubs, all community-led, but independent of each other in look and feel.
Related stories:
The Capital Pub Company raises £8m (23 November 2001)
