The department store group Beales has been given a lifeline after creditors backed a rescue package.
The Bournemouth-based retailer, founded in 1881, won the support of landlords to cut rents on 11 of its 29 stores, including sites in Rochdale, Bolton, Yeovil and Winchester.
One store, in Horsham, Sussex, is to close this summer, after the landlord demanded the lease be returned .
Rob Croxen, a restructuring partner at KPMG and supervisor of the company voluntary arrangement rescue deal – a form of insolvency – said on Thursday: “Today’s creditor vote in favour of the CVA proposal will allow Beales to take its first critical step towards turning the business around, tackling head on the issue of onerous legacy leases which have hampered the organisation in recent years.”
Beales was listed on the London stock exchange until it was bought by the property entrepreneur and Ukip supporter Andrew Perloff last year in a £1.2m deal.
Perloff’s property group, Panther Securities, and its associates had held about 30% of Beales’ stock, as well as owning the freeholds of 11 of the company’s 30 stores and providing a £1m loan.
The CVA documents show Perloff’s own property fund will take a rent cut on two properties.
Hundreds of creditors backed a similar rescue deal at BHS on Wednesday, the department store sold by Philip Green last year for £1.
