Westlife raises Rs 180 crore via preferential shares

BSE-listed Westlife Development said on Tuesday that it has raised Rs 180 crore through a preferential issue of shares to Arisaig India Fund, following Bombay High Court's nod for merging Hardcastle Restaurants (HR) as its direct subsidiary.

Hardcastle Restaurants is the master franchisee for west and south India operations of McDonald's Restaurants.

"The funds raised through the preferential allotment will be used to invest in the growth of our business, aggressively increase our retail footprint. We plan to add 75-100 restaurants in FY'14 and FY'15," said Westlife Development vice-chairman Amit Jatia.

Westlife will allot a total of 54.04 lakh fully paid equity shares to Arisaig India Fund Ltd, amounting to 3.47 per cent stake in the company.

The preferential allotment to Arisaig will have a lock-in period of one year from the date of allotment.

The Scheme of Arrangement involves the consolidation of BL Jatia group companies, HR (through its majority shareholder, Triple A Foods), and Westpoint Leisureparks (majority shareholder of Triple A Foods), under Westlife Development Ltd, Mr Jatia said.

The BL Jatia family holds majority ownership in these companies. As a consequence of the merger of the companies, the equity base of Westlife Development would expand to 15 crore shares.

"This is Westlife in a new form. The new shares will be listed on the BSE and we hope this will get done in the next three weeks. This will increase liquidity for us and help us keep our expansion plans on track," he said.

Arisaig India Fund is a registered Singapore-headquartered FII and part of Arisaig Partners, a fund management company with $5 billion in assets across emerging markets.

Westlife reported consolidated revenues of Rs 684.3 crore in FY'13, riding on a strong revenue growth of 25 per cent of its subsidiary, Hardcastle Restaurants.