House of Fraser, which was set up in Glasgow as Arthur and Fraser in 1849, has 59 stores across the UK and Ireland, and in many instances, outside of major conurbations, it is the anchor store in smaller city centre shopping towns, with its distinctive fuschia pink carriers, heralding yet another blow to the high street. It has had a UK presence for over 165 years.

The group has annual sales of £1.3bn and employs over 6,000 employees and 11,500 concession staff through over four million square feet of selling space.

The deal, valued at £69m, is expected to result in a significant capital injection in House of Fraser (UK & Ireland) Limited and its subsidiaries (the House of Fraser Group), although this follows the announcement that the company will apply for a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) by June which will see the group restructured. This is likely to be completed by 2019.

Listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, House of Fraser’s ultimate owners, Nanjing Xinjiekou Department Store Co, Limited (Cenbest), C.banner International Holdings Limited and House of Fraser Group Limited (HOFG) have entered into a share purchase agreement and a subscription agreement, which will see C.banner acquire an 51% of the total issued share capital of HOFG.

The House of Fraser Group is now in discussions with its lenders and with an ad hoc group of noteholders, who are believed to represent over 50% of the notes, in relation to the transactions, the restructuring plan and deferring the results for House of Fraser for the year ended 27 January 2018.

C.banner has extensive retail operations and assets including toy store Hamleys.

Cenbest, which is part of the Sanpower Group, will remain a significant minority shareholder. HOFG is an indirect majority shareholder of the Issuer.

This follows news in April that Carpetright was planning a major restructure and shop closures, while last year saw the collapse of BHS with the loss of several thousand jobs.

Report by Sara White