Tue 6th Aug 2024 - Exclusive – RedCat completes £61m refinancing, giving business ‘stability required to invest for growth’ Exclusive – RedCat completes £61m refinancing, giving business ‘stability required to invest for growth’: RedCat Pub Company, the investment vehicle founded and chaired by Rooney Anand, has completed a £61m refinancing, giving the business “the stability required to invest for growth”, Propel has learned. The refinancing of its current debt facilities comprises debt funding from Barclays Bank and further equity from the group’s existing investors, including funds managed by Oaktree Capital. The company said the deal “demonstrates a vote of confidence in the strategy, team and future success of the business”. RedCat group chief executive Richard Lewis said: “This is a hugely positive step forward for the business, with backing from a major high street bank, alongside further support from our partners at Oaktree. The refinancing provides the business with the stability required to invest for growth. The deal will enable the team to build on the successes we are already seeing with recent investments in our portfolio across both RedCat and the Coaching Inn Group, while enabling us to look to the future with even greater confidence and excitement.” The group reported turnover increased to £120,488,826 for the year ending 3 April 2023 compared with £62,790,800 for the previous 64-week period from when the company was incorporated in January 2021. Adjusted Ebitda stood at £3,584,251 (2022: £7,203,215) while pre-tax losses rose to £31,033,990 from £3,203,557. In September 2023, the group received £25.0m in additional funding from Oaktree Capital, £10m of which was used to repay part of its external borrowings. Following the period end, the group cancelled the undrawn portion of its facility totalling £45.8m, leaving total drawn facilities of £62.5m. RedCat was founded in February 2021. In March, Propel revealed that RedCat plans to exit more than a fifth of its 114-strong estate after a strategic review of its business. Alongside RedCat Leased Pubs, the ten-strong subsidiary that was placed into administration in March, it is looking to exit a further group of five sites within its managed division, taking the total potential number of managed sites being exited to 14. This takes the total number of sites the group plans to exit to 24. RedCat features in Propel’s Turnover & Profits Blue Book, the next edition of which will be sent to Premium Club subscribers on Friday (9 August), at midday. The database will feature 59 updated accounts and 13 new companies for a total of 958. Of these, 602 are in profit and 356 have reported a loss.