Bruce Group to withdraw from NEX

Scottish hospitality operator Bruce Group has announced it will be withdrawing from the NEX Exchange from next month.

The company's bonds are currently traded on the NEX Exchange, however it announced on the platform, which is an equity market for small and medium-sized companies, that the directors had decided to withdraw the bonds from trading on 6 September.

The announcement said the directors have decided "it is no longer in the interests of the company, its shareholders, or its bondholders as a whole for the company's bonds to remain traded on the NEX Exchange".

The group announced in March it was raising £20m through a bond issue to fund expansion through acquisitions. At the time, co-founder Kevan Fullerton said the three-year bond will enable the group to fund the acquisition of multiple pubs in a short time, both within the group's existing market and further afield.

Kevan Fullerton and Scott Piatkowski founded Bruce Group Scotland 20 years ago. It now has a portfolio of 19 pubs in and around Edinburgh including the Royal Mile Tavern (pictured), the George IV bar, and Drummonds hotel in Markinch, Fife.

The group has also submitted plans to Edinburgh City Council to turn the city's Cowshed bar and Barbados on Cowgate into a 26-bedroom hotel, restaurant, bar and function rooms.