Luminar breathes again with £99m loan to keep it going

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The owner of the Oceana and Liquid club brands has signed a three-year loan with Lloyds, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland.

The money should give it some breathing space to pay down debts and see if the new strategy from chief executive Simon Douglas is working.

He is moving to modernise the clubs — victims of the trend for late night bars and growing youth unemployment — by linking up with the Ministry of Sound to improve music and Jongleurs to put on comedy gigs.

Luminar will be charged interest of 7.8% on the loans and will pay £8 million in fees to exit other finance deals.

The shares rallied on the news, up 1.15p to 15.9p. The debts of £85 million dwarf the company's stockmarket value.

Paul Hickman at Peel Hunt said: "This appears to be the banking agreement Luminar needed. It gives management scope to carry out the debt reduction the company needs."

Luminar's sales were falling by 17% when it last reported in September.