{"id":406117,"date":"2020-06-09T10:30:38","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T08:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=406117"},"modified":"2020-06-09T10:30:38","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T08:30:38","slug":"edgars-looking-for-buyers-to-help-keep-it-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/406117\/edgars-looking-for-buyers-to-help-keep-it-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Edgars looking for buyers to help keep it open"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Edcon Holdings Ltd.\u2019s administrators are fast-tracking a plan to sell all or parts of the business to keep South Africa\u2019s second-largest clothing retailer in operation amid the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Interested buyers will be invited to carry out due diligence with binding offers expected by the end of June, according to a rescue plan released on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Salaries have continued to be paid through this month and remain a priority, according to the plan. Johannesburg-based Edcon has at least 18,000 workers, with suppliers employing thousands more.<\/p>\n<p>The owner of the Edgars and Jet chains\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-04-29\/edgars-owner-files-for-rescue-after-virus-measures-consume-cash\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">filed for administration<\/a> last month after losing R2 billion ($119 million) in sales as a result of South Africa\u2019s lockdown to contain the new coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p>Clothing stores were among those forced to close for five weeks through April, and were only allowed to open with limited ranges in May.<\/p>\n<p>The company had been struggling before the crisis, securing E2.7 billion from lenders, landlords and the Public Investment Corp. in a 2019 restructuring plan that freed the retailer of all interest-bearing debt.<\/p>\n<p>South African consumer spending has been lackluster for several years as weak economic growth and high unemployment eroded disposable income.<\/p>\n<p>Administrators led by Piers Marsden and Lance Schapiro opted for a sale plan after finding no investors for the business. A successful transfer of ownership will at least save some Edcon jobs, they said.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/enterprise\/406015\/eoh-achieves-debt-repayment-milestone\/\">EOH achieves debt repayment milestone<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Edcon Holdings Ltd.\u2019s administrators are fast-tracking a plan to sell all or parts of the business to keep South Africa\u2019s second-largest clothing retailer in operation amid the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":278795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-406117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":406123,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406117\/revisions\/406123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}