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Nightcap PLC on Thursday confirmed it won’t make a takeover offer for financially embattled Revolution Bars Group PLC. Nightcap, a London-based owner and operator of 46 bars, referred to Revolution Bars’s rejection on Tuesday of Nightcap’s non-binding proposal. Revolution Bars had said that, following legal advice, the board decided the plan was unfeasible but that it remained open to alternative proposals from Nightcap and others. The non-binding proposal would have required Revolution to proceed with its previously announced restructuring plan, but not a proposed fundraise of £12.5 million at a price of 1.00 pence per share. Revolution Bars had proposed the fundraise back in April, including plans that could see 18 of its bars close. Nightcap shares were down 1.0% at 3.86 pence per share on Thursday morning in London, while Revolution Bars shares were unchanged at 1.19p per share. Revolution Bars, a Manchester-based bar chain that operates the brands Revolution and Revolucion de Cuba announced in April that the company was facing financial difficulties stemming from the ongoing cost-of-living-crisis and recent train strikes in the UK. Following this, the company’s shares were temporarily suspended from trading on AIM after failure to publish results, and management declared they were embarking on a restructuring plan. Nightcap on Thursday said: ‘The board of Nightcap believes that the possible offer, if it had been implemented, would have seen Revolution Bars’ highly dilutive £12.5 million fundraising replaced by a merger of the two businesses, allowing for Revolution Bars’ shareholders to suffer less dilution and achieve more value from their investment.’ However, it said, it ‘respects that the board of Revolution Bars wish to pursue a different outcome and as a result Nightcap today confirms that it does not intend to make an offer’. Nonetheless, Nightcap said it will continue to pursue its strategy of consolidating the late night sector. It believes the sector is set to move from ‘incremental M&A activity to a fundamental structural transformation as many of the operators in the sector are going through significant change’. Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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