Cash warning over Courts
COURTS' administrator KPMG says it is pressing ahead with the sale of its overseas stores but it warns that it is still not possible to assess how much money will be salvaged for creditors.
KPMG revealed that it has spent £2.89m on costs relating to the administration since being appointed on November 30.
It has issued a Report to Creditors which reveals that Courts was in arrears with rental payments on 30 out of its 88 UK stores. This demonstrates that directors were trying to conserve cash in every way they could.
The report also shows that SB Capital paid £1.9m to take over all of Courts' furniture stock, though it also had to fork out cash to suppliers and honour customer deposits.
? Accounts just filed for collapsed retailer Allders state that its lenders were 'not aware of any reasons which would prevent the renewal of [loan] facilities in March 2005' and that directors are 'confident' that the group's performance will improve.
These accounts, which date to the year to June 2004, clearly have been overtaken by events. They reveal that operating losses more than halved to £26.2m while pretax losses narrowed from £57.1m to £17.4m.
