NEWS - Wednesday, May 29, 2002
UK Game Makers Rage To Sell Shares
The Liverpool-based company, whose games include David Beckham Soccer and Crash, said that if the share offering did not succeed, Bank of Scotland might withdraw a 6.2 million pound credit line and the company might be forced to call in administrators. Rage shares fell 10.9 percent to 1-3/4p by 0939 GMT. Rage, which has been forced to delay the release of new games because of funding problems and is suffering widening losses, said much of the proceeds from the share issue would be used to pay off creditors and the rest to meet its cash needs. "The group requires a minimum of 3.1 million pounds after expenses to be raised under the placing and open offer in order to have sufficient working capital for its present requirements," Rage said. "If the placing and open offer does not proceed, the directors believe that administrators are likely to be appointed," it said. Rage said it would offer a total of 446 million shares at 1.25 pence per share -- a sharp discount to the closing price of two pence last week. Rage has placed 280 million shares with broker Teather & Greenwood, and the rest would be allocated to its shareholders via a two-for-five offer. Rage also said the growth of its business would accelerate if the share sale succeeded. It plans to release David Beckham Soccer on Sony’s PlayStation2 (news - web sites) during the World Cup in June and on Microsoft’s Xbox (news - web sites) before the end of the same month. Its pre-tax loss widened to 8.5 million pounds for the six months ended December 2001, from 8.0 million a year ago. ($1=.6872 Pound)Source: http://dailynews.yahoo.com
