Luminar plans to raise £35.7m for expansion

Nightclub operator Luminar is to raise £35.7m from share issues so that it can take advantage of cheap property prices and expand its portfolio.

The company, whose brands includes Liquid, Life and Lava & Ignite, is raising the money by issuing shares at a discounted 95p (from 141p) each to raise half as much as the company’s current value of £80m.

Chief executive Stephen Thomas said: “This is a call to dance. Somebody has to put the smile back on the face of the UK and we plan to do it by getting people back on the dance floor. It you’re not dancing, you’re not enjoying yourself.”

Thomas is making the most of recent club closures – 200 in the first five months of 2009 – by targeting up to 60 towns with populations of 100,000 or more with the new cash being split evenly between the two Liquid and Oceana brands.

Around £16m has been allocated for Oceana clubs in Manchester and potentially Sheffield, Liverpool, Glasgow and Reading, reported The Times.

While £16m is also going on a further 10 sites under the Liquid brand or individually-branded units and £3m will be used to expand sites in Cambridge, Exeter, Bristol, Northampton and Bury St Edmonds.

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By Emma White

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