(^) Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 7, 2019
City Editor: Alex Brummer http://www.thisismoney.co.uk Business Editor: Ruth Sunderland
City Finance
15
pizzas sold by Domino’s
every minute during
Game of Thrones finale
dEsIGnER Karen millen has said
she is ‘deeply saddened’ the fashion
firm bearing her name will vanish
from the High street, after its
online arm was snapped up by rival
Boohoo for £18.2m.
The deal means all British Karen mil-
len shops are set to close, along with
those run by sister brand Coast, putting
1,100 jobs at risk.
millen co-founded the retailer with ex-
husband Kevin stanford in 1981 but sold it
to Icelandic bank Kaupthing in 2004, and is
no longer involved in the business.
she said she was devastated by the
impending closures, and blamed a wider
slowdown on the High street as customers
shop online.
The 57-year-old said: ‘While I
understand the changing face of
retail and the desire to shop
online, I am deeply saddened to
think that this may be the end to
the visible presence of the stores,
something both Kevin and I are
hugely proud to have built.
‘The seemingly regular news of
troubled retail stores is becoming
more apparent and desperate.
‘It’s with a heavy heart that I
can lock away the incredible
memories of a business that we
created and of the people we had
the pleasure to work with until
we sold it in 2004.’ Karen millen
and Coast have 32 stores and 177
concessions in the uK, which are
expected to continue trading for
the next few months. Boohoo has
acquired the pair’s internet divi-
sions and intellectual property in
a pre-pack administration deal,
and will not be saddled with the
brands’ debts.
Administrators deloitte con-
firmed 62 redundancies have
taken place.
manchester-based Boohoo was
founded in 2006 by mahmud
Kamani and Carol Kane and has
become a huge hit with 16 to 24-
year-olds looking to snap up its
cheap and cheerful clothing. The
online firm is now worth £2.7bn
after a dramatic rise which has
earned its founders a fortune.
Kamani and his family are now
worth £1.2bn while Kane’s wealth
stands at £141m, according to
The sunday Times Rich list.
meanwhile, millen was declared
bankrupt in 2017 after losing a
string of personal investments
thought to be tied up in Kaupth-
ing, which failed during the 2008
financial crisis. stanford, 59,
lashed out at Kaupthing saying:
‘It has completely destroyed the
brand. It’s a real shame for the
people that work there. Boohoo
are great operators and I believe
they understand what the brand
is about.’
Accounts for Karen millen’s
holding company show it made a
£5.7m loss in 2018 and £11.9m a
year earlier. Industry watchers
largely welcomed the deal.
Richard lim, chief executive of
Retail Economics, said: ‘‘Boohoo
will use all the expertise they
have acquired in recent years
using social media, and bring the
brand to a newer audience.’
Boohoo shares rose 4.1pc, or
9.4p, to 239.5p last night.
Failed broker hurts savers
TRAdERs face being locked out of their
accounts for months after stockbroker sVs
securities collapsed into administration
following a City watchdog investigation.
Customers will now be unable to buy and
sell shares or pull money out, until adminis-
trators leonard Curtis have confirmed its
books are in order.
Clients’ money and shares will be returned
to them, and will not be used to pay off any
sVs debts, leonard Curtis said.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
emphasised that, should customers suffer
any shortfall due to wrongdoing or poor
accounting at sVs, the Financial services
Compensation scheme will cover losses up
to £85,000.
But traders on Twitter were panicked.
one user, Adam Windust, said: ‘my shares
are all in here. Cannot log in and no one is
answering the phone!’
Another said: ‘I have an execution-only
account there too. Won’t be trading those
shares for a while.’
The broker failed after the FCA ordered it
to stop trading activities, and blocked it
from selling its own assets or its clients’.
The watchdog opened a probe, acting on
intelligence it received about the assets in
which clients’ money was being invested.
It follows the collapse of broker Beaufort
securities last year after an FCA interven-
tion, amid allegations of fraud.
sVs matches investors with firms on lon-
don’s Alternative Investment market, as
well as foreign exchange trading. since the
administration on monday, 14 firms have
said sVs will no longer be their broker.
Takeover will see chain vanish from
High Street with 1,100 jobs at risk
Karen Millen:
I am deeply
saddened by
Boohoo deal
by Hannah Uttley
Bezos share sale hits £2.3bn
AMAZON boss Jeff Bezos has sold another
£812m of shares in the internet firm as his
space company prepares to blast off.
The 55-year-old (pictured), who is
the world’s richest person, sold the
Amazon stock last Thursday and
Friday, just days after offloading
£1.5bn of shares, meaning he has
sold £2.3bn in total.
He remains Amazon’s biggest
shareholder, with 11pc of the
company, worth £84bn. Amazon
would not comment on the sales.
But it is thought a substantial part
of the money will be reinvested in
Blue Origin, the space rocket
company Bezos founded in
- The father-of-four has said funding
space travel is the best use of his vast for-
tune, as part of wider efforts to help
humans colonise other planets.
Blue Origin is close to being able to
offer passenger flights to the edge
of the Earth’s atmosphere,
although its rocket is still being
tested. Bezos said: ‘I am lucky that
I feel like I have a mission-driven
purpose with Blue Origin that is, I
think, incredibly important for
civilization. And I am going to use
my financial lottery winnings from
Amazon to fund that.’ His fortune
stands at £102bn, according to
Forbes magazine.
OpenedStaffStoresTarget customerProductsFoundersBoohoo
2006
2,200
None
16 to 24 year olds
Dresses cost
between £4and£95Mahmud Kamani (left)
and Carol Kane.
Kamani family
is worth £1.2bn
and Kane £141mKaren Millen
1981
1,100
32 (and 177 concessions)
Women aged 35 to 55
Dresses cost between
£85and£299Karen Millen(above)
and ex-husband
Kevin Stanford.
Millen was declared
bankrupt in 2017VsPage 62
China fears
market chaos
CHInA has warned Washington’s
decision to brand it a currency
manipulator will ‘severely damage
international financial order’ and
cause market chaos.
The People’s Bank of China, Bei-
jing’s central bank, also said that
ramping up the dispute would harm
the global economy. Its remarks
came after its simmering trade war
with the us flared up again, send-
ing stocks tumbling on monday as
investors fled to safe havens.
China was accused of currency
manipulation after the yuan was
allowed to fall to an 11-year low
against the dollar, despite Bei-
jing’s normally-tight control.
The fall enraged us President
donald Trump, who has long
accused China of artificially sup-
pressing the yuan to make its
exports more attractive than
American ones.
In response, the us Treasury
department formally labelled
China a currency manipulatory.
It has not made such an alle-
gation since it levelled the
charge at China in 1994.
After deciding a country is a
currency manipulator, the us
Treasury is required by law to
demand special talks aimed at
correcting the issue.Wo o d ford i n
Soros sell-off
BILLIONAIRE investor George
Soros has scooped up Neil Wood-
ford’s stake in plastic window
manufacturer Eurocell.
Eurocell revealed that Soros
Fund Management has bagged a
near 13pc holding.
Troubled fund manager Wood-
ford, who is dumping shares to
raise cash for investors who want
their money back from his sus-
pended flagship fund, was forced
to sell the stake for below the
market rate.
Soros bought the stock for
around 202p, paying £26m when
the deal happened last Thursday.
This was below the 211p which
shares had been trading at else-
where, meaning Woodford pock-
eted £1.5m less than if he had sold
them on the open market.
The money manager offloaded
his entire 16.23pc stake in Euro-
cell. The remainder of this stake
went to Spanish investment man-
ager Alantra and other smaller
investors.РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS