SHARES in leisure business Minoan Group opened five per cent down at 6p yesterday, after the firm announced that the sale of its travel arm was taking longer to complete than expected.

The Glasgow-headquartered firm announced last year that it would offload its travel division to allow it to focus on the development of a luxury resort in Crete.

In March it signed an exclusivity agreement with a preferred buyer but yesterday said that while the sale is proceeding, it is moving “more slowly than previously envisaged”.

Read more: Minoan ponders sale of travel division

In its accounts for the year to October 2017, Minoan said that the sale of its travel arm would leave it “substantially debt free”. At that point the firm had loans of £6.1m. 

Meanwhile, despite revealing in March that it had been approached about selling a “significant” stake in the Crete development, the firm noted that “discussions with prospective partners [in Crete] are continuing and we expect to provide further updates as negotiations progress”.

The Crete project was initially given approval in 2007 but did not receive full planning consent until June last year. 

Read more: Minoan makes loss as sale of travel division nears

The firm said it has granted the unnamed corporate adviser appointed to help with the sale £200,000 worth of share options.

The adviser has been given the option to subscribe for 2.5 million shares at 8p each up to a cut-off date of June 5 2020.

Having abandoned plans to raise £1 million through a share sale at the end of last year, Minoan has also revealed that it plans to issue 1.2 million shares at 6p each in order to “settle certain existing liabilities”. That sale would raise £73,200.