French Connection extends sale deadline
French Connection has extended the deadline to complete a sale as the retailer confirmed it was in talks with a number of interested parties.
The fashion brand had expected to close the deal in the first half of this year but has now pushed the date back to September.
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French Connection announced in October that it was up for sale and had begun talks with four potential buyers.
Founder Stephen Marks plans to offload his 42 per cent shareholding 46 years after establishing the high street store.
There was speculation that Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct could buy the company following the announcement.
Ashley, who bought House of Fraser out of administration in August, increased his stake in French Connection to 27 per cent in 2017.
French Connection had been loss-making for more than five years, before it made a modest return to profit in its latest full-year results.
The struggling retailer saw a return to underlying profit of £0.1m for the year to the end of January, up from a £2.1m loss in 2017-18. However, its operating loss almost tripled, from £3.8m in 2017 to £9.3m last year.
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“Our initial goal has been to return the Group to profitability which we have now achieved, however we now must intensify our efforts to ensure that we build on the momentum that we have within the business and move to an appropriate level of profitability,” said Marks at the time.