Select owed creditors £53m after entering administration

Fashion retailer Select “owed creditors £53.1m” to landlords and the Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) following the company’s administration in May.

The retailer filed for administration in May, after it made a loss of £15.5m on sales of £117m in the 18 months to 2 December, according to accounts filed at Companies House.

The statement of affairs reported Select, under the name Genus UK, only had £1m of cash in the bank at the time of the administration and held a further £2.8m worth of stock.

Quantuma revealed in the same document that landlords were looking to reclaim almost £3.5m as part of the unsecured non-preferential claims. The document also revealed claims of more than £2.3m from HMRC, including £1.7m in relation to unpaid VAT.

Select has 169 stores and employs roughly 1,800 staff, was bought out of administration by Turkish entrepreneur Cafer Mahiroglu in 2008. The retailer’s parent company Ozdemir owned by Mahiroglu, is owed £2.9m as part of the administration.

This comes after the retailer secured a second company voluntary arrangement (CVA) in just over a year in June, as part of the administration process.