Regent raising £18m to expand

REGENT Inns is beefing up its war-chest by launching an £18m share placing in the City.

The group behind the Aussie themed Walkabout bars and comedy venue Jongleurs wants to be ready to cash in on the fallout from tough trading in the pubs sector.

Chief executive Stephen Haupt said the difficult market conditions caused by the summer heatwave almost certainly mean more sites will be up for grabs.

He said: 'High Street trading has been quite tough. Some people have the brands that have been able to cope with that and other brands and operations have not been able to. I want to make sure that as sites come on to the market we are in a position to consider them.'

The group is placing more than 20m new shares at 83p each - a 9% discount to last night's closing price of 91 1/2p. Stockbroker Panmure is underwriting the fund-raising.