Beleaguered Dutch retailer Laurus said today [Wednesday] that it expects to announce the outcome of talks with a potential buyer “within days or weeks”.
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Laurus fell heavily into debt following a poor performance by its Spanish operations and after the expensive decision to merge its various supermarket operations into one format came a cropper.
The group said it is in advanced talks with its banks and the potential investor. It is not known wither the interested party is a trade buyer or financial backer. However, Laurus has revealed that the deal being discussed could heavily dilute its share base, as a new share issue worth €400m (US$348.2m), which would result in a crushing dilution for current shareholders.
In response, shareholders have moved fast to offload shares, which today opened more than 50% lower.
New CEO Jan Konings was appointed in September to oversee the turnaround. His first major achievement was to secure agreement from the banks in October to grant Laurus a further standby facility of €100m and a subordinated loan of €150m until 10 April this year. However, instead of getting back on track, indebtedness has risen steeply. The company attributed this to negative operational cash-flow, lower-than-expected divestment proceeds and increased working capital requirements.
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