Mothercare set for cash crisis talks

STRUGGLING Mothercare has called in accountants to advise on crunch talks with lenders to stave off a total collapse.

The mother-and-baby retailer has appointed KPMG to help it obtain waivers for loan agreements with banking lenders HSBC and Barclays.

Since the start of the year, its share price has plunged more than 76pc as it was hammered by two profit warnings. Mothercare, which has 1,131 shops, of which 152 are in the UK, saw its share price recover slightly after the news, rising by 7pc, or 1.02p, to end the day on 15.7p.

Mothercare alerted earlier this month that it expects underlying pre-tax profits to come in at the lower end of the £1m-£5m range it had previously guided.

Carpetright also suffered hefty share losses on Monday, plunging 7.7pc, or 3.4p, to 40.6p, after it emerged the embattled flooring firm was considering a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) that would allow it to jettison loss-making stores.

Further pain is expected on the High Street when fashion store New Look’s creditors vote this week on its CVA.

Retailers have been hammered by weak consumer confidence off the back of soaring Brexitfuelled inflation.