Discount retailer to raise £250m to repay loans and expand stores and stock
Liverpool-based discount retailer, B&M European Value Retail, said today (November 18) that it intends to offer sterling-denominated senior secured notes, worth £250m, due by 2031.
The Speke-based group said it will use the gross proceeds from the offering to repay the existing senior secured notes due 2025 – on or prior to their maturity on July 15, 2025 – and the full amount outstanding under the existing revolving credit facility as of September 28, 2024, for general corporate purposes, including for growth in working capital to support the increase in the number of stores and increased inventory in response to recent shipping disruptions, and to pay fees and expenses incurred in connection with the offering.
The Notes will be senior secured obligations of the company and guaranteed by certain of its subsidiaries.
They will rank pari passu (ranking equally and without preference) in right of payment with the company’s obligations in respect of its existing senior credit facilities and its existing £155.52m 3.625% senior secured notes, due 2025, £250m 4.000% senior secured notes, due 2028, and £250m 8.125% senior secured notes, due 2030.
In January this year B&M, which achieved a strong ‘golden quarter’ during last year’s Christmas festivities, announced plans to open 65 new stores in the UK in 2024, 45 B+M stores and 20 of the discount food retail brand Heron Foods. The company was also targeting 11 new stores in France.
Last week the retailer revealed plans to invest £20m in a new imports centre in Ellesmere Port to support its store opening ambitions.
