// Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Ponden Homes & Bonmarché administrators strike deal with investors to save 2500 jobs and 300 stores
// The investors are backing the existing management led by Steve Simpson
// EWM Group is working with the administrators to parcel up the businesses into a company called Purepay Retail in exchange for their secured position
Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM), Ponden Homes and Bonmarché administrators have reportedly struck a deal with international investors to save up to 2500 jobs and 300 stores.
The buyers are from a range of international investors who will inject capital into the business to enable it to trade.
A EWM Group source told Retail Gazette that the investors are backing the existing management led by Steve Simpson.
READ MORE: M&S rescues Jaeger from administration but stores set to close
EWM Group is working with FRP Advisory, the administrator for the Edinburgh Woollen Mill brand and Ponden Home, and RSM, the administrator for Bonmarché, to package the businesses into a company named Purepay Retail in exchange for their secured position.
That is then expected to be sold onto the new investors who will pay for the business in instalments over the next few years.
The investors are expected to inject cash into the businesses until shops reopen and resume trading.
Details of the rescue were still being finalised but it is expected to put EWM Group owner Philip Day back in control of some of his most established retailers after they crashed into administration in late 2020.
Day is seeking to use his position as a secured creditor to acquire the assets of Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Ponden Home and Bonmarche from administrators to sell them on to the new owners in a “complex” transaction.
Meanwhile, Marks & Spencer said on Tuesday that was taking over EWM Group’s Jaeger as part of a separate agreement.
Jaeger fell into administration in November its deal with M&S was part of a plan to revive the struggling division and sell other complementary brands online.
The M&S deal is expected to complete later this month.
The EWM source added that together with the news about Jaeger it means that Day and the administrators have managed to secure a future for most of the group.
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