Struggling British clothing retailer Superdry Plc could face delisting. On Friday, Superdry announced that co-founder and CEO Julian Dunkerton is pursuing a plan to take over the entire company together with financial partners.
Dunkerton has asked Chairman Peter Sjölander for permission to “explore the possibility of making a takeover offer for the company and to enter into negotiations with potential financial sources,” it said in a statement. Superdry then said it formed a transformation committee that gave its approval to the matter under certain conditions.
Dunkerton wants to take over the company completely together with financial partners
According to the company, Dunkerton, who is already a major shareholder in the company, is now negotiating with possible financing partners. These could lead to a purchase offer for any shares not already owned by Dunkerton, Superdry said. However, the talks are still “in a preliminary stage” and a decision has not yet been made.
According to a report by the media platform Sky News, Dunkerton’s potential partners are the financial houses Rcapital and Gordon Brothers, which specialize in investments in financially troubled companies. However, the negotiations are currently not very advanced and could still fail, explained Sky News, citing unnamed people close to the investment companies.
Despite extensive reform efforts, Superdry is still in a deep crisis
Dunkerton founded Superdry in 2003 with a business partner. After temporarily withdrawing from company management, he returned to the top of the now weakening company in 2019 after a successful power struggle with the management at the time.
Despite numerous reform efforts and drastic cost-cutting measures, he has not yet been able to get Superdry back on the road to success. The heavily indebted company was in the red in the last financial year and recently had to report further significant losses in sales.