Debenhams lending talks pay off as it closes in on store closure plan February 3, 2019 Debenhams will this week reveal it has bagged a cash injection from lenders as the struggling department store closes in on a radical restructuring plan. The embattled chain has been in discussions with lenders over recent weeks as it looks to refinance banking facilities over the next 12 months in a bid to stay afloat. [...]
Interim Debenhams chair shortlisted for Moss Bros role February 1, 2019 The interim chair of Debenhams could be in line for the role of chair at suit retailer Moss Bros. According to Sky News, Terry Duddy has been shortlisted as a potential successor to current Moss Bros chair Debbie Hewitt, who will step down from her role later this year. Duddy took on the chairman role [...]
Billionaire Mike Ashley’s retail empire balloons by a third in one year January 31, 2019 Mike Ashley’s retail footprint has swollen by more than a third in the last year, following a spending spree in 2018 that saw the billionaire tycoon snap up some of Britain’s largest high street chains. The Sports Direct owner, who is reportedly now in talks to add beleaguered music retailer HMV to his growing estate, bought House [...]
What are the UK’s most shorted stocks? January 29, 2019 Hedge funds made millions from short-selling Carillion shares after the construction firm collapsed a year ago. That’s hardly a surprise, but what’s telling is that many short-sellers were predicting its failure even before the company issued its first profit warning back in July 2017. Short-sellers borrow shares from other investors, typically large institutions like pension [...]
JD Sports owner heads list of the UK’s top 50 taxpayers January 27, 2019 Financiers, hedge fund managers and housebuilders dominated a new list revealing the UK’s biggest taxpayers, published on Sunday. The Sunday Times tax list, which also includes high profile names such as David and Victoria Beckham, estimates the amount of tax paid to HMRC by the UK’s wealthiest people based on publicly available information. Read more: The [...]
70,000 retail jobs lost in 2018, says trade body BRC January 24, 2019 Panic over further troubles on the high street has been underlined this morning, with new figures showing that some 70,000 retail jobs were lost last year. A retail employment monitor out today from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has found that the total number of jobs was down 2.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of [...]
House of Fraser suffers 60 per cent sales drop in run-up to Christmas January 21, 2019 House of Fraser has reportedly suffered a dive in sales over the crucial Christmas trading season, in a fresh sign of the woes facing the beleaguered department store chain. Year-on-year sales plunged 60 per cent in the 12 weeks to 18 December, according to Kantar Worldpanel figures reported in The Sunday Telegraph. It is the [...]
Debenhams shares slide as Moody’s hands struggling retailer a negative outlook January 17, 2019 Debenhams’ share price slumped seven per cent in morning trading, after ratings agency Moody’s lowered its outlook for the beleaguered retailer from stable to negative. Concerns over the risks that creditors might incur when lending to the embattled department store chain were flagged by Moody’s, pushing shares in Debenhams down 7.26 per cent to 2.8p [...]
Profiting from the retail revolution: What’s hot and what’s not? January 15, 2019 It turns out that so-called Super Thursday wasn’t so super after all. Despite being lauded as a day when retailers boast strong figures from the festive period, last Thursday proved to be a mixed basket of results. With consumers feeling the pinch and Brexit-sized uncertainty looming large over the high street, it’s not surprising that [...]
Shares in Debenhams dive as woes show no sign of abating January 14, 2019 The falling share price of embattled department store chain Debenhams showed no sign of a let up this afternoon as its stock value plunged a further 12 per cent. The retailer’s share price plummeted amid reports that as many as 90 of its high street stores could be up for closure, putting 10,000 jobs at [...]