Amigo yet to get takers for capital raising; shares tumble

(Reuters) -Amigo Holdings said on Friday that it had so far failed to meet its target of 45 million pounds ($55.7 million) in a key capital raising, triggering a one-third plunge in its share price in morning trading.

The sub-prime lender reiterated that if it cannot raise the extra funds by May 26, it would start an orderly wind-down of the business. Earlier this month, the company said it had also failed to find a cornerstone investor for the fund raising.

Amigo got the UK financial regulator's nod to return to lending in October last year. The company had ceased lending in November 2020 following a deluge of customer complaints that it had mis-sold loans.

The company won court approval last May for a compensation scheme for past customers and a rescue plan for the business.

Shares in the company tumbled as much as 33.3% to 2 pence in early trade and were about 20% lower as of 0906 GMT.

Amigo also said volumes for its pilot lending programme have increased substantially this month, days after it said it was looking to extend the pilot period, after the volume of completed loans fell short of the minimum volume required.

($1 = 0.8082 pounds)

(Reporting by Chandini Monnappa and Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; editing by Savio D'Souza, Simon Jessop and Sharon Singleton)