No laughing matter at Regent Inns
Shareholders of pub chain Regent Inns, which runs 20 Jongleurs comedy clubs, will not be amused, after an audit error prompted a 17% plunge in the stock.
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The company, audited by Ernst & Young, announced yesterday that it would be delaying its preliminary results after the discovery of an accounting error that may have put it in breach of its bank loan agreements.
The historic treatment of the money interest rate swaps in Regent’s banking facilities ‘has not been strictly in accordance with the procedure set out in the loan facility documentation,’ read a statement to the stock exchange.
The news comes just days after the departure chief executive Stephen Haupt and finance director Simon Rowe from the company, which also runs the Oz-themed Walkabout chain.
Regent Inns, which has £75m of debts, said it was now discussing how to resolve the matter with its banking partners.