Minoan has raised £525,000 to support long-held plans to develop a holiday resort in Crete, writes Brian Donnelly.

The listed Glasgow-based leisure group said it will be used to "provide general working capital to support the development of the group, in particular its resort project in Crete, and to settle certain existing liabilities".

The amount raised includes £100,000 from directors.

The firm said in its report to the London Stock Exchange that it has agreed to settle liabilities totalling £250,000 by the issue of shares.

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In October the managing director of Minoan Group Duncan Wilson left the firm as part of the disposal of travel agency arm Stewart Travel.

Stewart was acquired by Minoan's lender Zachary Asset Holdings, which wiped out all but £1 million of Minoan's £8.3m debt in exchange for taking the travel agency off its hands.

Minoan was left in the position of being the developer of an as-yet un-started luxury resort on the Greek island of Crete.

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Mr Wilson led the management buyout of Stewart Travel some weeks after leaving its former owner, Minoan Group.

The sale of Stewart Travel to Zachary came after Minoan failed to secure a buyer on the open market.

The business had been seeking to sell its travel agency since December last year.

Shares were down seven per cent at 2.50.