Oakman looks to raise £5.3m ‘buffer’ from shareholders

Pub group Oakman has revealed it is looking to raise £5.3m from its shareholders through a discounted share placement to provide a “buffer” to protect the business from any further worsening of the economic environment.

In a half-year trading update, the business said debt markets were “pretty much closed” to hospitality operators at present and that Oakman would return to market for further funding once this improved.

Peter Borg-Neal, the group’s founder and executive chairman, said: “We have very supportive shareholders, and we are confident that this raise will prove to be a success.”

The group reported total sales for the 26 weeks to 1 January 2023 of £36.16m, up 9.8% like-for-like on 2019 and 1.1% compared to 2021. December sales were particularly strong with a record period of £8.23m – 6.5% up on 2019 and 10.4% up on 2021.

Oakman has a pipeline of six sites which are to be converted into its flagship Oakman Inn brand, in Gerrard’s Cross, Ludlow, Epsom, Old Hatfield, Harpenden and St Albans.

The group’s core Oakman Inn brand has 28 sites while its Seafood Pub collection has 11. Borg-Neal said the focus would be on investing further in existing Seafood Pub sites and developing the concept before exploring any further acquisitions.

He added: “We expect our growth to accelerate further over the coming months. It is an unfortunate consequence of the current situation that many of our competitors will be closing their doors – some temporarily, some permanently. We have already seen many closures and there will be many more to come in the next few months. This supply side adjustment does, of course, benefit those businesses that are still open and, indeed, our sales over the past couple of weeks show very strong growth over the last year.

“The board remains fully committed to an exit/liquidity event. However, we will only do so when market conditions are such that we will secure the appropriate value for the business. We are fully confident of the future performance and to exit prematurely would be detrimental to all.”