A new share placing has raised £141m for J D Wetherspoon, but diluted chairman Tim Martin’s stock to 28% of the business.
A total of 15,668,430 new ordinary shares in the capital of the company have been placed by Investec Bank plc, at a price of 900p per share.
The company’s immediate priority is to manage the business during the current lockdown period, and also starting to plan for a re-opening of pubs and hotels in late June.
In the meantime, Martin, chief executive John Hutson, and each of the non-executive directors have taken a 50% pay cut.
