Wasps on brink of deal to repay multimillion-pound debts

Wasps have said they are close to a deal which will help it repay some of their multimillion-pound debts.

Bondholders are owed £35m after Wasps Group launched a plan in 2014 to purchase Coventry Building Society Arena, then called the Ricoh Arena, with money raised through a first-of-its-kind bond scheme.

Costing £2,000 each, the bonds offered 6.5% interest every six months over their seven year period. The cash enabled Wasps Group to secure the arena from operating company ACL – jointly owned by the Alan Edward Higgs Charity and Coventry City Council.

Those investors should have been repaid in May but on that date a statement was issued informing there had been a delay as the bond was in the process of being refinanced.

It said then that the revised date for the refinancing to be completed was on or before June 30 before being put back again to August.

In its most recent update to investors, Wasps Finance PLC said it had made progress and talks with a lender were “at an advanced stage”.

It said it had “received an offer which would see the bonds fully redeemed on completion of this refinancing”.

But it added that it is proceeding with developing the proposed bond terms to be amended “should these refinancing discussions not complete”.

The news comes days after it was revealed that plans for a new hotel next to the CBS Arena in Coventry have stalled after funding for the project expired.

The council granted Wasps permission for a long lease on a car park in 2018 to deliver the project and £12.2m of loan funding was secured from the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).
The WMCA has now said Wasps owner Derek Richardson has missed the deadline to draw down the loan money for the hotel.