Carpetright abandons privatisation plans
Retailer Carpetright falls victim to the credit crunch as it is forced to drop plans to privatise
A consortium led by Lord Harris of Peckham, the founder, chairman and chief
executive of retailer
Carpetright, was
forced to drop plans to take the company private, blaming ‘external market
conditions’.
The consortium was in advanced negotiations to buy the chain for £850m.
However it withdrew as the market closed last Friday.
Lord Harris, who owns 23.4% of the company and was being advised by
Deloitte,
told The Daily Telegraph he was ‘disappointed that, due to external
market conditions, we are unable to proceed with an offer for the shares of
Carpetright’.
A statement issued by the consortium said: ‘Since the original proposal was
submitted, the credit markets have deteriorated significantly with a consequent
adverse impact on the economic outlook and the availability of funding and cost
of capital.’
Read
story in The Daily Telegraph