Myer is still hoping to extricate itself with minimal damage from the collapse of the TOPSHOP and TOPMAN franchise in Australia even though negotiations with the UK brand owner and touted saviour, Sir Philip Green's Arcadia Group, are dragging on.
Minutes of the first creditors meeting, which were lodged with the corporate regulator this week, showed that the TOPSHOP franchisee Austradia Pty Ltd owed at least $35 million to creditors when it went into voluntary administration last month.
The biggest creditor is not Arcadia Group, which claims it is owed $8.8 million or £5.02 million, but the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which is owed $12.1 million. Other significant creditors include UK-based trade credit insurer Nexus CIFS ($8.7 million), UK-based trade finance company Greensill Capital ($3.58 million), and Toll Global Forwarding ($1.12 million).
There's no mention in the creditors list of Myer, which is understood to be owed a few million dollars as well as being a 20 per cent shareholder in Austradia. Myer's equity stake was written down from $9.2 million to $7.2 million in the half-year accounts.
Arcadia Group is expected to take control of the Australian business and buy back all the stock and inventory as part of a working capital deal or a deed of company arrangement. Austradia had about $12 million stock on hand.
The administrators - Ryan Eagle, James Stewart and Jim Sarantinos of Ferrier Hodgson - are still negotiating with Arcadia over the size of the deal and it is unclear whether it will be sufficient to repay creditors in full. The administrators are also investigating the conduct of directors in the lead up to their appointment.
TOPSHOP is the most high profile of the recent spate of fashion retailers to collapse amidst the weakest retail trading conditions in six years.
According to Deloitte Access Economics' latest retail forecasts, spending on apparel rose 1.5 per cent (inflation adjusted) in the year to March 2017. This represented just 0.1 per cent growth in spend on apparel per person, with global chains such as Zara and H&M; grabbing the lions share.
TOPSHOP, one of the first of the global chains to arrive, has annual sales of about $90 million, while Zara, H&M; and Uniqlo combined have sales of more than $680 million, based on recent accounts.
