Rugby union club Wasps wants to become the first sports team to issue a retail bond on the London Stock Exchange, in a bid to raise up to £35m. The bonds, which can be purchased until 6 May, have a fixed coupon rate of 6.5 per cent and will pay interest twice a year until 2022, when they mature.
Wasps, one of 12 clubs in the English Premiership, was based in London for most of its history, but now plays its home games at the Ricoh Arena stadium in Coventry. The launch of the bond offering comes amid wider transformation at the club, which acquired the 32,600-seater Ricoh Arena and complex last October.
The bonds will be secured over the assets of the club and the complex, the latter of which is valued at £48.5m and which, in addition to a sports ground, is also home to a casino, a hotel, a shopping centre and an indoor facility that can host up to 12,000 people. As part of the club's push to build a leading multipurpose venue, chief executive David Armstrong is focused on the expansion of the stadium as a major Midlands-based music arena, and new opportunities for sponsorship.
"This is another step in achieving our aim of creating a long-term sustainable business model," says Mr Armstrong, who argues that the diversified income stream reduces the reliance on match day performance.
Wasps becomes just the fourth retail bond issuer so far this year, following offerings from three FTSE 250 financial services companies: lender Provident Financial (PFG), asset manager Intermediate Capital Group (ICP), and International Personal Finance (IPF), which provides unsecured loans in eastern Europe.
The bond offering is available through the LSE's Order Book for Retail Bonds (Orb), and sold by Barclays Stockbrokers, Interactive Investor, Redmayne-Bentley, Shareview and Selftrade. Investors in Wasps are required to make a minimum £2,000 investment, and additional bonds will be sold in multiples of £100.
