Retail Decisions in bond revamp

CREDIT-card fraud protection company Retail Decisions has moved to repair its balance sheet by agreeing new terms on a debilitating convertible bond issue with Credit Suisse First Boston.

Retail Decisions issued £15m of convertibles in September last year in a deal CSFB structured that left the prospect of a huge dilution hanging over the firm's investors when the shares later sank.

Chief executive Carl Clump said Retail, which has 154m shares in issue, had renegotiated terms on the debt and would issue 56m new shares to bondholders at 12.58p.

A total of 23m shares have already been issued to converting bondholders at between 10.5p and 13.2p, and start trading on 12 December. The converted shares are being sold on to 25 institutions by Investec Henderson Crosthwaite.

Investec is also underwriting a rights issue of two new shares for five existing ones at 15p to raise £9.65m. That will reduce Retail's debt to £1m and finance the £5.4m purchase of Australian car card company Motorcharge. That will involve issuing 64m more shares.

Shares in the firm slipped 1 3/4p to 19 1/4p.