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Albemarle & Bond to appoint administrators | Albemarle & Bond to appoint administrators |
(about 1 hour later) | |
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. | |
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 board intends to appoint four PwC insolvency staff to wind up the company, which has 183 stores. | |
Trading in the firm's shares was suspended on Monday. | |
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. | |
"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. | |
It added that the appointment of an administrator was "the most appropriate course of action". | |
Melt-down | |
The firm put itself up for sale in December, but said none of the proposals it had received represented fair value. | |
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. |