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C-store supplier Nisa Retail is in talks about a £120m refinancing deal as the sector continues to reel from the shockwaves of the proposed Tesco £3.7bn takeover of Booker, according to reports.
Nisa is in the final stages of agreeing new banking facilities with HSBC and Wells Fargo to replace an existing £100m package with Barclays, Sky News reported last night.
The refinancing would give the group more breathing room to be able to expand, insiders told the broadcaster.
It follows a turbulent few years for Nisa, which serves thousands of convenience stores across the country. The business recorded a loss of £2.9m in 2015 – the first time in its history the group had fallen into the red.
In July 2016, CEO Nick Read hailed a “transformational year” as the buying group beat its profit forecast for the year to 3 April. Profits came in at £7.3m but revenues dipped 1.9% to £1.3bn in what Read admitted had been a “challenging,” year.
However, the return to profitability enabled Nisa to kick off fresh refinancing talks with lenders, bankers told Sky News.
The Grocer revealed in October that Nisa had been forced to delay a payment of around £8.5m to logistics provider DHL as a result of cashflow issues.
A contract win to supply the 298 new McColl’s stores acquired from The Co-op was a timely win for Nisa in November as the group attempted to recoup volumes lost as a result of the collapse of My Local earlier in the year.
A transformation plan launched by Read to turnaround Nisa has set a target of growing sales to £2bn by 2019.
Morning update
It’s an unusually quiet Thursday morning on the markets during this half term week in the run up to the general election.
Irish drinks manufacturer C&C Group (CCR) has appointed Andrea Pozzi as group chief operating officer with immediate effect. Pozzi, who is currently MD of the group’s businesses across Great Britain covering the Scotland and C&C Brands business units, also joins the board of directors. He joined C&C in 2010 and has held a number of roles within the group, including group manufacturing director and managing director international. Before joining C&C, Pozzi held various management positions in the Carlsberg Group, Brasseries Kronenbourg and Masterfoods.
In his new role, as well as continuing to lead the group’s businesses in Great Britain, he will assume responsibility for the group’s manufacturing, logistics, procurement and IT functions.
Chairman Sir Brian Stewart said: “We are delighted to announce Andrea’s appointment as a director of C&C and our chief operating officer. Andrea has made a significant contribution to the group since joining C&C, most recently leading our business units in Great Britain. His appointment as chief operating officer strengthens our management team and his leadership will augment the ability of our operations function to continue to drive the success of the group.”
The FTSE 100 has bounced back from yesterday’s dip to climb 0.5% this morning to 7,555.38 points.
Other early climbers include Cranswick (CWK), up 1.4% to 3,0005p, Imperial Brands (IMB), up 1% to 3,663.5p, and Diageo (DGE), up 0.8% to 2,344.5p.
Marks & Spencer has plunged 3% to 371.2p as markets opened. Greencore (GNC) is also down 0.5% to 240.4p, along with TATE & Lyle (TATE), down 0.4% to 735p, and AG Barr (BAG, down 0.5% to 655.5p.
Yesterday in the City
It was a mixed day for the supermarkets, with Tesco (TSCO) and Morrisons (MRW) falling 0.8% to 183.9p and 0.3% to 246.8p respectively, while Sainsbury’s (SBRY) rose 0.4% to 280.8p and online rival Ocado (OCDO) jumped 1.6% to 313.4p.
The movement was against the backdrop of the latest market share figures from Kantar Worldpanel and Nielsen, which showed Aldi and Lidl were growing sales at their fastest pace since 2015 as food price inflation continued to accelerate. Overall grocery sales were up by 3.8% year-on-year – the market’s best performance since September 2013 – driven by a rise in grocery inflation to 2.9%, according to Kantar in the 12 weeks ending 21 May.
All the major supermarkets saw rising sales, led by Morrisons, up 1.9% and Tesco, up 1.8%. Sainsbury’s and Asda were up 1.7% and 0.9% respectively.
Marks & Spencer (MKS) was another of the day’s fallers, down 0.6% to 384.6p, despite the latest GfK Consumer Confidence Index edging up for May. B&M European Value Retail (BME) was another retailer down for the day, falling 0.9% to 364.7p.
The FTSE 100 edged down for a second day in a row this week as the UK general election draws nearer, with the blue-chip index 0.1% behind to 7,520 points.
Risers yesterday included, PZ Cussons (PZC), Greencore (GNC) and Unilever (ULVR), up 1.4% to 344.9p, 0.8% to 240.4p and 0.7% to4,338p.
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