Healthcare Locums Plans 60 Million-Pound Placing With Investors

Healthcare Locums Plc (HLO), a U.K. recruiter of health-care staff, is placing 60 million pounds ($99 million) of shares with investors and making an open offer of as much as 4.25 million pounds in a refinancing.

The aim is to secure the company’s finances and to enable trading of its shares on London’s Alternative Investment Market, suspended in January, to be resumed, Healthcare Locums said today in a statement on the Regulatory News Service.

Toscafund, an existing shareholder, has agreed to buy 336,375,000 new common shares for 33.6 million pounds and ACE Ltd. will pay 13.16 million pounds for 131,625,000 shares. The refinancing, which also includes a debt-for-equity swap and debt repayment and reorganization, depends on shareholders’ approval at the annual meeting, the company said.

The shares were suspended after the company said it was investigating “serious accounting irregularities.” On June 29, Chairman Peter Sullivan said a “material amount” of profit would have to be written back from earlier years because of incorrect accounting.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Goodman in London at dgoodman28@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Colin Keatinge at ckeatinge@bloomberg.net