Superdry in talks on new multimillion pound loan – report

Superdry may be in negotiations about its founder taking it private, but the company also has major funding needs on an ongoing basis and a report on Monday said it’s negotiating an extra loan of around £10 million with Hilco.

That report came from Sky News, which said Superdry is looking for new financial headroom following a steep downturn in trading. 

And the talks for the extra £10 million are on top of the £100 million+ of existing debt that the company has, most of it with lender Bantry Bay.

The loan talks are believed to be at a detailed stage but still not at the point where an agreement is guaranteed. There’s no confirmation of this as none of the parties have commented.

Superdry has suffered a succession of weak results and founder Julian Dunkerton’s 2019 comeback as CEO hasn’t yet yielded the turnaround it hoped for given the challenges presented by the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.

That has caused the company’s overall market value to plummet to the point where it’s currently worth just a little over £30 million compared to the billions it was worth as recently as six years ago. But, notwithstanding its debt, this has presented an opportunity for Dunkerton given that he owns a big chunk of the shares. With private equity backing he would be able to buy the business back and continue focusing on its turnaround away from the glare of a stock market listing.