Luminar in a raiser to snap up its ailing rivals

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It is raising the cash by issuing new shares at 95p, to raise almost half as much again as its current market value of £80 million.

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 dancefloor. If you're not dancing you're not enjoying yourself."

Around 200 nightclubs have gone under in the first five months of 2009 and Thomas has targeted 60 towns with populations of 100,000 or more which he reckons are ripe for one of his Oceana or Liquid formats.

The new cash will be split roughly half and half between the two brands.

He said: "We've got 88 clubs at the moment and I'm looking for places where we can build dancefloors which can take 1000 people a night."

Luminar's two biggest shareholders Schroders and Hermes are backing the share issue alongside the directors.

The new shares are being issued at a 33% discount to last night's closing price of 141p.