Clinton Cards Share Discussion Threads

[weelshgit] 09/5/2012 10:55

P O N A 9 May'12 - 08:38 - 404 of 411

"looks like americnan greetings has nicked the biz for nothng"

not really.... more like for c.£35m






Ho Ho , do you think they bought the debt at face value? Think again

[angus17] 09/5/2012 10:46

anybody that has been into a Clinton shop knows that they sell rubbish at huge margins. This might have been sustainable in the debt fueled decade of old but I am afraid people are not being given the debt that allowed this business model and madness in the first place.

Should have folded a couple of years ago.

[fxscotland] 09/5/2012 10:46

why dont HMV buy them and sell cars from their shops !!!

[hoper2] 09/5/2012 10:15

I wonder how much the Americans paid for debt? I bet it was a lot less than £35 million. The Americans have obviously seen a way to make a quick buck out of the situation and obviously don't give a damn about the workforce.

[salpara111] 09/5/2012 10:05

Sad but inevitable.
Ever since their disastrous acquisition of Birthdays this has been a one way bet.

[imastu pidgitaswell] 09/5/2012 09:44

Shareholders of TNO (bankers are LLOY) might want to be aware of this...

[still waiting] 09/5/2012 09:19

surprised this lasted so long.

back to HMV next then..

[tony727] 09/5/2012 09:13

Good ....... Been selling cards at stupid prices ..... priced themselves out of business...no loss

[p o n a] 09/5/2012 08:38

"looks like americnan greetings has nicked the biz for nothng"

not really.... more like for c.£35m

[imastu pidgitaswell] 09/5/2012 08:32

Have followed this from afar for a while, but I do not recall any semblance of notification that loan covanants were being breached, or could be breached -technical or otherwise.

As such, I would imagine m'learned friends will be engaged by the larger shareholders for action against - who? Directors? Advisers? American Greetings?

Cannot see how a legitimate transaction can take place here, but interesting to follow. As for the business itself, well it was prolonging the agony, but even so, there was some shareholder value here which has been misappropriated - there was no notification to the market of a breach.

[weelshgit] 09/5/2012 08:20

looks like americnan greetings has nicked the biz for nothng

[n3tleylucas] 09/5/2012 08:10

administration and suspension

9 May 2012 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



CLINTON CARDS PLC

Proposed administration and suspension of dealings



Clinton Cards PLC ("Clinton Cards" or "the Company"), the UK's largest specialist retailer of cards, regrets to announce that it expects a subsidiary of American Greetings Corporation, ("American Greetings"), the Company's largest supplier, to take steps to place the Company and its subsidiaries into administration later today and has therefore requested a suspension of dealings in its shares with immediate effect.

Clinton Cards was informed last night that Barclays Bank plc and Royal Bank of Scotland plc (the "Banks"), had sold the Company's loan facilities to American Greetings. The outstanding indebtedness under such loan facilities is approximately £35m.

The Company is not in breach of any financial covenant or repayment obligation under the facilities. However, it had been in receipt of temporary waivers for some technical breaches of default related to management changes and supplier related discussions.

Whilst not party to the negotiations between the Banks and American Greetings, based on its discussions with American Greetings, the Board believed that, if the loan facilities were sold to American Greetings, American Greetings would enter into discussions with the Company with regard to its ongoing support for the business and expected it to extend the waiver of the technical breaches of the loan agreement.

However, having secured control of the debt, American Greetings immediately informed the Board that it intended to enforce the loan against the Company and the Board has concluded that because it is unable to repay the loan it has no option but to concur with American Greetings proposal to place the Company and its subsidiaries into administration.

Having completed the strategic review, the Board recognized the need to restructure the business and had been expecting to review its business plans and strategy with its stakeholders and exploring ways to produce a better outcome for the Company's stakeholders as a whole.

The Company had been intending to publish its interim management statement on 10 May. Trading for the 14 weeks of the second half to date has continued to be difficult, with Group like-for-like sales down by 3.5%, in line with the trend reported in the Interim Report and the Board's expectations.

[notanewmember2] 29/4/2012 20:44

Yes, I believe so, the chart tells all.

[diku] 29/4/2012 20:20

Is this another high street business model broken likes of Woolworths, HMV & others due to online?.....

[eipgam] 29/4/2012 19:50

Sunday Times today has a downbeat story on Clintons

[clocktower] 29/3/2012 11:45

From stock clearance I assume. As I posted on 20.03.12 it seems the shops have been starved of stock to help clear old and dead stock, leaving them looking empty and bear. While I view this as a very good way to clean the business up, it does cause a problem going forward if suppliers will not advance stock on long term credit, and even if they do the trading cycle to payment will kill the business imo.

[dusseldorf] 29/3/2012 11:04

they haven't gained any cash, just a different way of reporting it IMO.

The worrying trend of increasing creditors has increased IMO game v2 in progress.... shortly it looks like they won't be in a position to pay their debt if business does not show markable improvement.

[lennonsalive] 29/3/2012 10:47

Where did they gain the cash from?

[clocktower] 29/3/2012 09:54

Clinton in even deeper trouble - it could be that like others on the High Street they might soon become as dead as the Dodo.

[clocktower] 20/3/2012 12:20

I was taking to a supplier of Clintons today, who was telling me that many of the companies shops are suffering from a lack of stock. It seems head office have set a very low bar on auto re-orders, so by the time replacement stock arrives they have sold out and in fact are missing a lot of sales because of the policy that is designed to manage funds available. It seems several of even very busy stores look as though they have a serious stock shortage.

This gives me the impression that they are very seriously short of funds and does not paint a very good picture.

[clocktower] 24/2/2012 09:14

Maybe it will not be long before RBS pull the plug if the business is taking a hit on the high street, like so many retailers. Maybe Valenties Day did nothing to restore hope.

[m.t.glass] 26/1/2012 11:55

Price on its way down again?
It's been hanging onto that 10p+ level for the past few weeks.
Plenty of orders to buy at 10p, but two MMs trimmed their bids a few moments ago, LCAP to 8.88p and RAZH to 8.63p.

[m.t.glass] 20/1/2012 11:53

From a series in which rival outlets are compared - and readers respond.

[m.t.glass] 06/1/2012 08:10

"fight back" and "strong figures" sound like desperate wishes.

Those headline writers and analysts using words like "recovery" and "turnaround" based on this week's feeble statement are delusional.


The new boss isn't set to announce the outcome of his strategy review till sometime in April/May/June.

[l2user] 06/1/2012 05:33

Clinton Cards/JJB
fight back with strong festive figures
FRIDAY 06 JANUARY 201

The Scotsman
By Scott Reid
6 January 2012