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Albemarle & Bond to appoint administrators Albemarle & Bond to appoint administrators
(about 1 hour later)
Troubled UK pawnbroker Albemarle & Bond will be unable to make loan repayments to lenders, and intends to appoint PwC as an administrator, it has said. Loss-making UK pawnbroker Albemarle & Bond is set to appoint an administrator after its lenders said proposed rescue plans for the business were not viable.
Lenders Barclays and Lloyds told the company that options for rescue plans were not feasible. The group, which employs 1,000 staff, said it would not request an extension to its 31 March deadline to repay outstanding loans to its lenders.
The pawnbroker will not request an extension to a deadline to repay outstanding loans. The board intends to appoint four PwC insolvency staff to wind up the company, which has 183 stores.
The board intends to appoint four PwC insolvency staff to wind up the company. Trading in the firm's shares was suspended on Monday.
The company had been seeking to defer its loan repayments beyond a 31 March deadline in exchange for support for a turnaround plan. The move came after the firm warned there was "no realistic prospect" of its shares, which have fallen 97% in the last year, having any value.
Lenders did not view that plan as workable. "In the absence of any other available facilities from its lenders or elsewhere, the company will shortly be unable to meet its liabilities as they fall due," it said in a statement.
Last year, Albemarle & Bond closed 33 unprofitable pop-up gold-buying stores. It added that the appointment of an administrator was "the most appropriate course of action".
In November, the company started melting down its own gold. Shortly afterwards, five company directors resigned. Melt-down
The firm took a number of steps last year to try to staunch losses, including halting online lending. The firm put itself up for sale in December, but said none of the proposals it had received represented fair value.
The company put itself up for sale in December, but stopped the sale process in January, saying that none of the proposals it had received represented fair value for the company. It has been hit by the fall in the price of gold, and had been attempting to turn itself around by slashing costs.
Last year it closed 33 pop-up gold stores, and in November admitted it had resorted to melting down its gold jewellery stocks to raise cash.
Shortly afterwards it suffered a mass exodus, with five of its six non-executives quitting.
The company was founded in Bristol in 1983.