Restaurant Group unveils £500m debt plan and strong trading

The Restaurant Group unveiled £500m of new debt facilities and said delivery and takeaway trading at Wagamama and other chains was strong.

The company has signed up for a £380m term loan to 2026 and a £120m revolving credit facility to 2025 with no leverage tests until June 2022.

The owner of Wagamama and Frankie & Benny's said it would use the money to repay all existing debt, which is due in July 2022. It said this would simplify its financing at group level and provide a more efficient funding structure.

Restaurant Group said it had an accelerated reopening plan for dining in once restrictions end and that it expected all viable sites to reopen within two weeks.

"The group currently has approximately 200 sites trading for delivery and takeaway across its Wagamama and leisure businesses. The trading performance of those sites in the current financial year (FY 2021) has been very encouraging."

Restaurant Group shares rose 9.1% to 118.81p at 09:07 GMT.

Delivery sales are 2.5 times pre-Covid-19 levels and takeaway sales are five times higher, the company said.

The company said net debt at the end of December was about £340m, in line with expectations. Cash burn will be about £5.5m every four weeks until the end of the current lockdown for hospitality businesses, due on 17 May at the earliest.