Potential buyers in talks for Buy As You View
STAFF at rent-to-buy television and furniture business Buy As You View will continue to be paid into next year as administrators confirm they are in talks with two potential buyers of the business.
Buy As You View, which has some 40,000 customers, was put into administration last month with the immediate loss of 41 jobs.
The current workforce is around 220, of which 150 are based at the HQ in Bridgend.
One of the parties is understood to be the existing management team of the business, who are focused on maintaining as many jobs in Bridgend as possible if they strike a deal with administrators EY, who are acting for the creditors.
However, EY said it “remains a distinct possibility” that a sale will not be possible. In that event, EY has told creditors and employees that they would look to continue to trade the business for the sole purpose of running down the loan book of Buy As You View – for which there is regulatory approval to do so from the Financial Conduct Authority until February 2019.
In information circulated to creditors, EY said it could do this at a calculated time cost of just over £2.1m – although currently they said they don’t expect that they would bill and draw payment of these time costs in full.
In a letter to all remaining staff joint administrator for the company behind the Buy As You View trading name, Dunraven Finance, Dan Hurd of EY, said: “I would like to outline that the administrators are now in active discussions with two interested parties with regards to a potential sale of the business and assets of the company.
“At this stage it is difficult to give a timescale as to how long these discus- sions will take to conclude and further work will be required by both the administrators and the interested parties to assess whether it is possible to conclude a transaction.
“Whilst these discussions have been encouraging, it still remains a distinct possibility that a sale will not be possible. As previously highlighted, under such circumstances, the administrators will continue to trade the business to run-off the loan book.
“Whilst we continue exploring the sale of business and given our outlook for the business I can confirm that all employees will receive their basic salary for a minimum period to January 31, 2018.”
The business, which moved to an online only model last year, had a realisable value on its loan book of around £13m at the time of appointment of EY. The business is owned by Hayfin which as the firm’s main lender took over control of Buy As You View from private equity firm Rutland Partners last year.