Quarto raises £13.9m as shareholders and Lau and Giunti family step in

The Quarto Group has announced it has successfully raised £13.9m following a share offer which aims to reduce its bank debt.

Quarto announced the share offer last month, revealing it owed $54m to the bank and $13m in loans.

It said: “This figure is significantly higher than expected for a company of the company's size and profitability and the board considers that this debt presents a risk to the future profitability of the Group and hampers the ability of the company to make dividend payments or other returns to shareholders.

Following approval of the share offer on 31st January at a special meeting, the company issued 20,444,550 new common shares at 68p per share. Qualifying shareholders subsequently took up 11,731,505, or 57.4% of the shares offered.

The remaining shares were taken up by a group representing current c.e.o. C K Lau and another for Italian printers the Giunti family, who had both underwritten the offer.

Dealings in the new shares began at 8am today (3rd February) and Quarto has raised £12.8m in gross proceeds from the offer.

Last week, it was revealed that the company had turned down a 2019 takeover bid by US investor Richard Hurowitz, reported to value the company at £90m.