24th Feb 2019 09:46
LONDON (Alliance News) - British fashion and homewares retailer Laura Ashley PLC has received a takeover offer from Manchester-born entrepreneur Michael Flacks, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
Flacks is to approach Laura Ashley's Malaysian controlling shareholders about taking it private and reviving it, according to the newspaper.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/02/23/struggling-icon-laura-ashley-gets-takeover-bid/
The reported approach comes after Laura Ashley shares dropped on Wednesday as it revealed a swing to an interim loss and warned of lower annual profit.
Laura Ashley shares are down almost 50% in the past 12 months.
For the six months to the end of December, the retailer posted a pretax loss of GBP1.5 million versus a profit of GBP4.3 million in the comparative period a year ago.
Revenue dropped 8.8% to GBP122.9 million from GBP134.7 million as sales fell amid a difficult trading environment for the UK retail industry and the closure of four stores during the period.
Like-for-like sales during the six months fell 4.2%, with the decline partly offset by positive like-for-like Fashion sales, up 12%.
"Trading conditions have been difficult during the first six months of the year to December 2018," Chair Andrew Khoo said on Wednesday.
He continued: "Given the continued market turbulence and having reviewed the revised management forecast for the second half year, the board now holds the view that the performance for the entire year will fall short of market expectations."
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