Shares in troubled pawnbroker Albemarle & Bond were suspended yesterday after the chain failed to convince lenders to back its turnaround strategy.
The firm – which put itself on the market in December – has spent the past two months attempting to thrash out a deal to shore up its finances.
The firm yesterdy said it was continuing to work with its lenders on possible alternative options to ensure the business continued to operate.
However, management yesterday called for share trading on the AIM to be suspended as they warned the company was facing potentially overwhelming financial difficulties.
“The board of Albemarle now believes that these remaining options open to the company, which could include the sale of the business at a level below the current level of financial indebtedness, provide no realistic prospect of any value being attributable to the company’s ordinary shares,” the firm said in a statement to the stock exchange.
“As already announced, the company’s current covenant deferral agreement expires on March 31, 2014.
“The company’s lenders have indicated they may be willing to extend this agreement in certain circumstances.
“But if they do not then the company could be required to repay its outstanding loan facilities and although the company has sufficient cash headroom to meet current trading requirements, if the entire debt facility became repayable it would not be able to meet this liability.”
In December, the company revealed that profits had plunged from £21.4m in 2012 to £4.9m last year.