Invista seeks extra cash
INVISTA European Real Estate Trust is aiming to raise £58.27m by selling shares to avoid a potential bank foreclosure as it sails perilously close to breaching a loan covenant.
The property fund manager, which suffered a 23.4 per cent fall in the value of its assets between December 2007 and September, said its loan-to-value ratio at June 2009 had hit 74.4 per cent against a limit of 75 per cent.
A breach of these terms would allow Lloyds Banking Group to foreclose on €401m (£357.3m) of drawn-down loans and take control of the company to recoup the loan amount, Invista said in a statement.
It is proposing to sell about 146m new ordinary shares at 20p each – a 32.8 per cent discount to the closing price onFriday, and about 29m preference shares at 100p.