Sweet success for Hotel Chocolat...and three other unusual retail bonds

Retailer Hotel Chocolat has announced a second issuance of its retail bond, with returns paid out to investors in chocolate instead of cash.

Investors are attracted to retail bonds by the high interest rates and steady income. However, investors can be locked in for the duration of the bond's life, and are unprotected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme if the company goes bust. Here we look at five unusual examples of retail bonds issued in recent years. Hotel Chocolat The gourmet chocolate retailer plans to raise £10m in development capital from this issuance. The bond follows its first retail bond offering which raised £5m and the firm said 93% of investors chose to roll over their investment. However, the ...