(Bloomberg) -- Patisserie Holdings Plc Chairman Luke Johnson proposed lending the troubled U.K. cake-shop owner 20 million pounds ($26.3 million) to stave off collapse amid a deepening accounting scandal.

The owner of Patisserie Valerie expects to enter into a 10 million-pound loan agreement with Johnson, who also holds a 37 percent stake, it said in a statement Friday. The chairman will also commit to a further 10 million-pound bridge loan, the company said.

The company also proposed raising 15 million pounds through the issue of 30 million new shares at a price of 50 pence a share. The new shares would represent nearly a quarter of the company’s enlarged share capital.

Patisserie Holdings said it requires an immediate cash injection of no less than 20 million pounds. Earlier Friday the company said finance chief Chris Marsh was arrested as U.K. fraud prosecutors opened a probe into the accounting scandal, disclosed on Wednesday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Pfanner in London at epfanner1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Eric Pfanner at epfanner1@bloomberg.net, John Lauerman

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.