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Safestyle UK PLC shares crashed on Thursday, after it said it does not expect to receive a capital injection or new financing. Safestyle is a Bradford-based retailer and manufacturer of PVCu replacement windows and doors. Its shares were down 69% to 0.50 pence each in London on Thursday afternoon. In the last 12 months, the stock is down 98%. At the end of September, Safestyle reported that revenue fell 5.3% in the half year ended July 2, to £74.1 million from £78.3 million the previous year. Its pretax loss widened to £6.7 million from £2.8 million. Safestyle decided against an interim dividend, after a 0.4 pence per share payout a year prior. ‘The trading context of the UK economy and consumer confidence remains extremely difficult. Encouragingly, inflation is beginning to show some signs of moderating, but that follows a period of sustained high inflation. The impact of significantly higher interest rates than expected is clearly impacting consumers’ disposable income,’ Safestyle said at the time. It also said that it had been engaging with its stakeholders to discuss ways to strengthen its balance sheet in order ‘to support its recovery and help facilitate future growth.’ As part of these discussions, Safestyle said at the time that it had engaged with ‘a number of third parties who have expressed interest in investing in the group.’ It added that in order to achieve a working capital injection, it was seeking an alternative financing structure. However, on Thursday Safestyle said it does not expect to receive a capital injection or new financing. It did note that it is still in active discussions with a shortlist of interested parties as part of its restructuring programme. These discussions focus on a sale of some or all of the company’s business and assets. ‘The company is working with these parties towards concluding these discussions as quickly as possible,’ Safestyle said. ‘There can be no guarantee that these negotiations will result in the completion of a proposed sale, and, even if a proposed sale does complete, there can also be no certainty on the timings or level of return, if any, to shareholders.’ Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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