{"id":7410,"date":"2019-02-11T22:06:17","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T22:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/debenhams-secures-cash-injection-as-it-battles-for-survival\/"},"modified":"2019-02-11T22:06:17","modified_gmt":"2019-02-11T22:06:17","slug":"debenhams-secures-cash-injection-as-it-battles-for-survival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/debenhams-secures-cash-injection-as-it-battles-for-survival\/","title":{"rendered":"Debenhams secures cash injection as it battles for survival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"DebenhamsImage copyright<\/span>
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Debenhams is understood to have secured a cash injection of around \u00a340m to buy it extra time as it battles to secure a longer term deal with lenders.<\/p>\n

The department store chain is expected to announce the fresh funds imminently.<\/p>\n

The struggling chain – which issued three profit warnings last year – is in talks with lenders and bondholders over renegotiating its debts.<\/p>\n

Debenhams is also trying to accelerate plans to close stores<\/a>, and is expected to close around 20 stores this year.<\/p>\n

The extra money – which was first reported by the Guardian<\/a> – is understood to be an interim agreement which will extend the retailer’s current \u00a3520m borrowing facilities with banks and enable it to continue talks over a longer term refinancing.<\/p>\n

Debenhams announced last year<\/a> that it would close up to 50 stores within three to five years, putting 4,000 jobs at risk.<\/p>\n

However, it is now trying to secure an insolvency deal<\/a> which would enable it to bring forward the closure of around 20 department store chains to this year. <\/p>\n

The deal – known as a company voluntary arrangement – would also allow the chain to renegotiate its rents with landlords. <\/p>\n

The chain has not yet named which stores it plans to close. <\/p>\n

Debenhams has 165 stores and employs around 25,000 people.<\/p>\n

High Street retailers have been under increasing pressure as more people choose to shop online and visit stores less.<\/p>\n

Debenhams reported a record pre-tax loss of \u00a3491.5m last year and more recently said sales had fallen sharply over Christmas.<\/p>\n

Last year, rival chain House of Fraser fell into administration before Mike Ashley, the billionaire Sports Direct founder, bought the department store’s assets for \u00a390m.<\/p>\n

Mr Ashley is also a major shareholder in Debenhams, with a 29% stake, and he recently joined together with investor Landmark Group to vote the retailer’s chairman and chief executive off the board<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sergio Bucher is continuing as chief executive of Debenhams but will no longer sit on the board while Sir Ian Cheshire stepped down immediately as chairman.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source<\/a> by [author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright Getty Images Debenhams is understood to have secured a cash injection of around \u00a340m to buy it extra time as it battles to secure a longer term deal with lenders. The department store chain is expected to announce the fresh funds imminently. The struggling chain – which issued three profit warnings last year … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}