End clap for Made.com. The online furniture seller, in serious difficulty and having failed to find new sources of financing, announced on Tuesday that it was placed in administration with a view to its liquidation and the suspension of its action on the London Stock Exchange.
The British company has announced “its intention to appoint directors” of the firm PwC, and “following a request from the board of directors, the ordinary shares of the company have been suspended”, according to a press release. Eventually, the listing “will be canceled, any residual value will be distributed to shareholders and the company will be liquidated”, she said.
Suffering from a drop in demand, due in particular to inflation and the global disruption of supply chains, the company had warned in September that it was evaluating “various strategic options”. Known for its comfortable sofas in colorful velvet, the company has suffered a reversal of fortune since its IPO in June 2021. Its market capitalization was then worth some 775 million pounds and its title 200 pence, values gone up in smoke since .
Potential buyers
Its stock has lost more than 99% of its value since the start of the year, now worth only half a penny. “It’s a dramatic fall for a company known for its stylish ranges” but “clearly out of reach for many as the cost of living crisis still rages on” and driving many households, particularly in the UK, watch their spending closely, according to Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter.
At the end of October, the company which sold its furniture in the United Kingdom, but also in other European countries such as France, Switzerland, Belgium or even Germany, announced the interruption of its negotiations with potential buyers and a halt to new orders at a subsidiary. However, it has received expressions of interest from potential buyers, “interested in almost all or only part of the company, its assets and its brands”, she said on Tuesday.
But if a sale were to take place, without “any certainty”, it would now be carried out by the administrators, she added. The board of directors had said in September that it had also considered a capital increase but judged that “the current conditions do not make it possible to raise sufficient equity from investors”.