96% take-up for Provident Financial’s £330m rights issue

Crisis hit Provident Financial has had a 96% take-up of its £330m rights issue as it seeks to shore up its finances.

The Bradford-headquartered sub-prime lender announced a rights issue of 105.0m new ordinary shares in February, which closed for acceptances at 11am yesterday.

Barclays Bank and J.P. Morgan Securities, who have underwritten the rights issue, will now seek to procure subscribers for the remaining 3.9m shares

Provident Financial also needs to meet the costs of FCA probes into its credit card and car finance arms after what has been a turbulent year for the 138-year-old company.

It has reached a £172.1m settlement with the FCA following an investigation into failings by Vanquis Bank. Provident also expects liabilities of around £20m from an FCA investigation into its Moneybarn division.

The financial group had a very difficult 2017, which included losing two-thirds of its share value in a day after it issued a second profit warning and revealed the departure of its then-chief executive Peter Crook.