European newspapaper group Mecom said today it was now on a “sound financial footing” after successfully raising an extra £100m in cash from its shareholders.
The company announced a share rights issue last month, which it said would raise enough money for “a new lease of life”.
It wanted shareholders to buy six extra shares at a discounted price of 1.5p each for every one share they already owned.
In a statement issued this morning, Mecom said 70.79 per cent of shareholders had agreed to this, raising an extra £100.15m for the company.
The remaining 29.21 per cent of unwanted shares have been taken up by JP Morgan and Cenkos Securities, which are acting as underwriters for the share issue.
They will now try to sell these. At 1.5p each, they could fetch £41.3m.
Mecom chief executive David Montgomery said today: “This is a major achievement for the company.Mecom is now on a sound financial footing which will allow us to make the most of the opportunities ahead.
“We will also continue to modernise the excellent titles and properties we own across Europe, thereby equipping all of our publications to emerge out of these difficult economic times in more robust shape than before.”
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