Ted Baker has raised £105m in new equity, the loss-making fashion retailer said today, amid plans to reduce cost and shift toward online sales as it struggles to ride out the coronavirus crisis.
The company is known for its suits and dresses with quirky details.
It had said that it planned to offer 126.7 million shares at 75 pence each, a 51.1% discount to its closing price on May 29.
Even before the coronavirus crisis, Ted Baker was struggling to recover from setbacks including an accounting scandal, profit warnings and management change after founder Ray Kelvin stepped down amid misconduct allegations, which he denies.
New chief executive Rachel Osborne, a former manager at department stores group Debenhams, laid out a transformation plan earlier this month including cost savings and a shift towards online sales.
Analysts say Ted Baker has struggled to hold on to customers amid online competition from the likes of Boohoo.com.
The company plans to gradually reopen stores - closed since a lockdown to contain the virus pandemic in late March - from the middle of this month, in line with government guidance.
For the year ended January 25, Ted Baker made a pretax loss of £79.9m, compared with a profit of £30.7m the previous year. Total revenue fell 1.4% to £630.5m.
Revenues also slumped 36% for the 14 weeks from January 26 to May 2.
"The board recognises that last year's performance was disappointing for all of Ted Baker's stakeholders, reflecting a challenging external environment as well as significant internal disruption, driven by a number of senior leadership departures," the company said.
