If Ocado’s reasons for tapping shareholders for £575m sound familiar, that’s because they are. Part of the explanation of the need for more cash was identical, word for word, to the description given in June 2020 when the online grocery firm raised £657m in equity plus £350m in debt. The extra money will allow Ocado “to capitalise on the opportunity set over the medium term”, said the statements, then and now.
When will “the medium term” actually arrive? And is it the same “medium term” as was imagined two years ago? Well, there is progress of a sort in that Ocado now offers a rough definition of what it means. In a City presentation last month, it talked about “four to six years” as the “midterm” and said the path led to pre-interest, tax and amortisation earnings of more than £750m, which would be a mighty leap from the £61m reported on the same basis for last year (and which became a thumping loss of £177m at the pre-tax level).
