Centrica Shares Drop on $1 Billion Fundraising Plans

LONDON—The U.K.'s biggest energy supplier, Centrica PLC, said Thursday it intends to raise around £ 750 million ($1.09 billion) from a private placement of shares to fund two acquisitions and pare debt in light of mounting pressure on its credit rating.

The FTSE 100 utility plans to issue 350 million shares, or shares representing 7% of its current share capital. It will use £ 350 million of the funds raised to buy two companies that will enhance its retail footprint. It will use the remaining £ 400 million to lower its net debt to preserve its strong investment grade credit rating.

Shares in the company fell more than 7% in early trading in response to the plans.

Goldman Sachs Group and UBS Group AG are the banks responsible for executing the private placement.

The two banks plan to start the process of taking orders for the share issue Thursday with a view to disclosing the price at which the shares will be issued once the bookbuilding process has been completed. No time frame for closing the bookbuilding process was provided.

The new shares are expected to be admitted into trading on May 9.

Write to Alex MacDonald at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 05, 2016 03:55 ET (07:55 GMT)

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