Pub property agent Colliers CRE in £20m share issue

Pub property agent and commercial real estate consultancy Colliers CRE plans to boost its coffers with a £20m share issue.

The refinancing move will see 100m shares issued at a price of 20p per share. FirstService Real Estate Advisors (FSREA) is to invest £8.9m to take approximately a 29.99 per cent share of the new enlarged share capital of the company, which has 294 offices in 61 countries. Colliers said it aimed to use part of the funds raised to reduce its net debt to approximately £7m.

The news comes after the company, which includes Colliers Robert Barry, reported its revenue from fees for the half year to June 30, 2009, had fallen by 32 per cent to £27.1m.

It blamed the slump on turmoil in the financial markets and market conditions being "the most difficult faced by the industry given the virtual standstill in transactional activity".

David Izett, group chief executive, said that he expected the market to improve in the second half of the year.

"The £25m reduction in our cost base, our sharpened new business focus and the proposed refinancing place us in a very good position to generate additional revenues and profits from a sustained recovery," he said.

"In the shorter term, for the remainder of 2009, we expect performance to be significantly better than the first half as we benefit from the re-organisation of the Group and the first signs of more active markets."

The company is currently handling 68 pubs put up for sale by Punch Taverns in September.