Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Woolworths: yours for a pound!

The Gurn wonders what it all means for a landmark High Street building. Could another building shortly become available for 'town centre redevelopment?' We are certainly living through a time of great change and it is a bit hard to imagine the High Street without Woolworth's but that sadly may become a reality.
'Woolworths is in talks to sell its entire high street business to Hilco, the specialist distressed fund, for £1.
Any deal will require the approval of the troubled chain’s banking syndicate, which recently appointed restructuring advisers from Deloitte to guide it on further loan negotiations with Woolworths.
The talks are likely to hinge on how much of Woolworth’s debt Hilco, a global turnaround specialist, is willing to take on. Negotiations over the responsibility for the £100 million pension fund deficit, which Hilco will not want to assume, will also be difficult. '

Full article
here on the Times site.
Another times page grimly states:
'Shares in Woolworths, which have been worth less than 10p for most of the year, closed 5.81 per cent down at 3.8p yesterday. Retail analysts have suggested they have no value. '

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have read about Woolies retail woes for a while now. It seems they remained what was regarded as an old fashion high street retailer for too long without a strong web presence.
They have also been criticised as being a shop whereby no-one really knew as to what they sold. I can't tell you how often I have visited the store with the 'I wonder if Woolies will sell that' only to come out with something completely different and without the item I went in for.
I will miss their presence on the street as will all our holiday makers, where will they go when it starts raining? More money leaving Nairn to be spent elsewhere if you ask me