Is Woolworth's in the last chance saloon?
Slowly but surely news of the ongoing discussions between Woolworths and its bankers are starting to leak into the market. As we have covered of late, Woolworths is struggling on a trading basis and also has substantial debt which it is unlikely to pay off in the short term. This seemed to have been the catalyst for an attempted sale of the retail division for one pound to a recovery specialist but for whatever reasons this has been blocked so far by the company's bankers.
It appears that the group has only days to conclude a deal which is suitable for all parties involved and will allow the main group to fight off administration and eventual bankruptcy. Woolworths has been one of the UK darlings of the high street for many years although the group seems to have found it difficult to adapt to changing conditions and new retail trends. To think that we may see the end of Woolworth's as we know it is a grave reflection on the situation in the UK high street.
This also seems to confirm the relative inflexibility of the UK banking system at the moment even though many of them have been bailed out to the tune of hundreds of billions of pounds by the UK taxpayer.
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