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Rent.com.au (ASX:RNT) flags capital raise

The Market Online Deal Room
ASX:RNT      MCAP $23.29M
01 February 2021 15:15 (AEST)
Rent.com.au (ASX:RNT) - CEO, Greg Bader

Source: Business News

Rental property business Rent.com.au (RNT) has entered a trading halt ahead of a capital raise.

The ASX-lister requested the halt this morning as it prepared to ask investors for a cash injection. While RNT is yet to flag how much it’s seeking to raise — or what it’ll use the funding for — it should emerge from the halt no later than Wednesday, February 3.

By then, investors should know more about the business’ latest funding foray.

Today’s trading halt comes just days after Rent.com.au released its latest quarterly report.

The communications services stock tabled $734,000 in revenue over FY21’s second quarter. While this is down slightly on the first quarter’s $754,000 result, it’s a 27 per cent improvement on the same period last year.

RNT chalks the result up to a record October and the company’s advertising sales pipeline. The business also explained the softer quarter-on-quarter figures could be attributed to a subdued rental market over the Christmas season.

The period also marked the second consecutive quarter of positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for Rent.com.au’s core portal business. Meanwhile, its RentPay arm recorded a 55 per cent improvement in losses year-over-year.

“Many renters view the beginning of the new year as the ideal time to find a home, and with high rental demand comes an influx of new rental listings and vacant properties for rent,” Rent.com.au CEO Greg Bader commented on Friday.

“Many leases will also expire in early 2021, as well as moratoriums on evictions ending in Tasmania and the ACT, so I expect we’ll see some heightened rental demand in the coming months,” he concluded.

Rent.com.au shares last traded at 4.3 cents on Friday, January 29.

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