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UK retail giant BHS to enter liquidation

Xinhua, June 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

The UK retail firm British Home Stores (BHS) is to shut its doors and the closure is likely to lead to job losses for 11,000 people, it was announced on Thursday.

Duff & Phelps, the London-based business insolvency firm appointed as administrator, said in a statement BHS would close down.

The statement said: "Despite the considerable efforts of the administrators and BHS senior management, it has not been possible to agree on a sale of the business. Although multiple offers were received, none were able to complete a deal due to the working capital required to secure the future of the company."

Duff & Phelps confirmed that all 163 BHS stores would be in close-down sale mode over the coming weeks. Efforts to sell the stores would continue, but 8,000 staff members would likely lose their jobs. Duff & Phelps confirmed that a further 3,000 jobs of non-BHS employees, who work in the store's concessions, may be at risk.

Philip Duffy, managing director of Duff & Phelps said: "The British high street is changing and in these turbulent times for retailers, BHS has fallen as another victim of the seismic shifts we are seeing."

BHS was founded by American entrepreneurs in London in 1928, and listed on the stock exchange in 1931. In the 1980s it expanded overseas and grew on the UK high street in a series of mergers.

BHS entered insolvency on April 22, at which point Duff & Phelps was appointed as administrator.

The UK government's business minister Anna Soubry said in a statement the administrators being unable to find a buyer for the business was "devastating news for all those who work at BHS and those in the supply chain."

The sale and subsequent collapse of BHS is the subject of two British parliamentary inquiries.

The news of BHS's demise comes just 24 hours after Austin Reed, a fashion retailer with a significant presence on UK high streets, announced its stores would close at the end of June after its administrator failed to find a buyer for the business. (1 British pound = 1.44 U.S. dollars) Endit