Member Info for mt11

If it's valued at revenue then they can get around £90m on the low side.

If they look at EBITDA sans any exceptional one-off costs then more like £50m.

Southcoastbather - What's a low-ball offer for PLT?

Reardon95 - Nothing scheduled but we have

- PLT Sale

- Burnley Site

- Director share purchases (unlikely but possible)

- Interim Results (anytime between now and end of November)

- Budget changes (potential changes to 'de minimis' which will remove the advantage international competitors have)

- Economy improving (unlikely who knows though)

- Russia/Ukraine war ending and going back to cheap gas/oil

All of it could go to nought as well if we get dragged into some NATO related conflict, or Trump decides to slap us with huge tariffs.

Much simpler, Debenhams repaid £97m nearly half a year before it's maturity date which doesn't scream we need money. Anyway it doesn't matter.

I have some THG but haven't been following what's happening with that to be honest.

The decision to repay the £97m term loan early appears to be a strategic move rather than a sign of funding pressure. By cutting the loan ahead of maturity, they save on interest, strengthen leverage metrics, and present a cleaner balance sheet at year-end, while still retaining access to the RCF for liquidity if required. The repayment could also have been motivated by covenant management or simply to demonstrate financial discipline to lenders.

Whatever the case, it doesn’t give the impression that the group is tight for cash.

Sure, they could use more, who couldn't but Debenhams isn't about collapse any day now. Notwithstanding any unusual and unforeseen events.

I really think Asos and Debenhams should group together and apply pressure on the Government to curb the laws Chinese companies use to beat them on price. They won't get Frasers on board but they might also be able to get other retailers like JD Group on board.

Frasers' annual report is interesting as well, too long to type. If you pay close attention then it diminishes Frasers' snarky comment about Debenhams being a competitor. Bigger picture seems to be China is bleeding the local retailers. Frasers excel at cost control.

For the slow people at the back, Dan and Co are still problematic haha

Hexam you might be right about the drawn down because they do on to show

> Interest bearing loans and borrowings (122.9)

I still don't get why they would payback a loan that wasn't due for a few months if they had a immediate need for cash. Debenhams seem to have had a few loans last year which they juggled. Worth mentioning they didn't sign the new £175m RCF until end of August 2025 and that was replacing the £125m due in October 2026.

Guessing it's just another dumb move on their part...

Rather odd of them to repay the loan earlier than it's due if they have/had money issues:

> The Facility comprises of a £125m RCF that runs to October 2026 and a £97m term loan that is repayable in August 2025. The £97m term loan was repaid in full by 28 February 2025.

They could have held on to the £97m for at about 5 months.

Page 124 shows "Drawdown on revolving Credit Facility (RCF)" at £35 in the Debenhams Group Annual Report 2025 and then they paid it back as per the next line. They have a note but for some odd reason I can't search in the document.

A spokesman for Frasers said: “In their dreams are they a competitor, let alone a major one. Their board are specialists in failure and should be sacked.”

This is a funny line, not entirely true, they are certainly competitors. No longer major and the board are specialising in failing.

I guess Frasers could just go in and make on offer but that's not their plan, their plan is to agitate further, to keep feeding any negative coverage to pick this up and shaft all the other shareholders (not just the retail investors). Frasers are not and have never been benevolent shareholders for any firm. It has always been how can we drive the share price down and pounce. The absolutely messed up thing is the same press that entertain them in regards to Debenhams also know this and have called them out for their sharp practices.

The Debenhams board are failures. They brought a lot of this on themselves with the uncertainty around results. Their lack of explanation for why Frasers debt finance was bad in comparison to the RCF they agreed to. Their failure to realise they need to dispose of assets for about a year, if we on this forum knew that, why didn't they. The list is endless.

Whatever happens the chances of retail investors getting shafted is high. There's also a moderate to high risk of Kamani and Frasers getting shafted because the debt holder will have the highest preference for any distributions in the case of failure and as it's asset backed now that means they'll take those assets then sell them on or manage them themselves to sell at a later date.

In other news, reviews on Debenhams are bizarre. Take this 1 Star review which is actually positive

https://www.debenhams.com/product/maine-khaki-premium-chino-trousers_edd09015?colour=khaki

My bad. Fed it is. Yeah Dan is strange. Holding onto brands he has no confidence in. Not worth going back to physical stores until they firmly get all their costs under control and have more breathing room, if they do it now then they’ll muddy the waters further and blame all their woes on the stores.

FED1

I remember shopping at Debenhams as well, especially when they’d have the events and the shops would be open later leading up to Christmas.

Anyway, I view that as a different proposition to the current Debenhams. In fact that was very different to the garage store experience right before they collapsed.

Debenhams are focusing a lot on volume and quantity, especially in terms of partners which is why they have so many suspect line items.

It’s fine though, we don’t need to agree. I personally don’t feel that inclined to defend Dan or the board, especially since they can’t even be bothered to reply to investors.

Typo in the earlier message it should read

The other reasons are poor management of assets, and the increasingly poor performance. They should have sold a brand by now.

We mock Dan but he did build up Debenhams’ GMV.

Maybe he should have sold all the brands and just kept strong brand partnership deals so Debenhams can keep selling those brands.

Losing control of the narrative is partially to blame. The other reasons are not poor management of assets, and the increasingly poor performance. They should have sold a brand by now.

Frasers have been dumping on them as well, it’s partially Debenhams fault for giving them the opportunity.

I would like Debenhams to counter some of Frasers’ claims like the RCF that Frasers offered, it would be good to know exactly why that was a bad deal in comparison to the one they signed.

I don’t expect Frasers to make a move until 12 months have passed since their last purchase so they don’t have to pay more than double per share.

FED1

Alistair McGeorge also stepped down from RevB earlier this year. They didn’t give a reason as far as I know so it could be anything from winding down to health issues to falling out with the board on strategy.

Looking from the outside though, having him on the board hasn’t resulted changed anything and they had him on the board for a while.

It's meh, however a seasoned lawyer with board experience might just be the person to stop the ongoing attacks from Frasers.

It's easier to make a bear case rather than a bull case right now.