Tom Tailor signals financing agreement with banks and majority shareholder

Tom Tailor’s refinancing negotiations seem to be finally entering their final stage, with the troubled German fashion chain announcing on Wednesday it has reached an agreement with its lenders and Chinese majority shareholder Fosun. The new facility of 365 million euros ($394m) will support the group’s finances until September 2022, helping secure its long-term future. The agreement is expected to be finalised at the end of October.

On Wednesday, the company also revised its guidance for the 2018 financial year to reflect a more conservative assessment of the future business performance. Tom Tailor expects 2018 EBITDA profit to amount to 64 million euros, compared to 70.6 million as it had previously forecasted. Bonita is expected to see an EBITDA loss of 38.2 million.

Tom Tailor has been struggling to survive in a tough retail environment for several periods, and it narrowly avoided collapse earlier this year thanks to a bridging loan provided by its banks in August. But the underperforming Bonita brand, incorporated over eight years ago, continues to be a headache for the business after its sale fell through in July.

Additionally, the company may have to start a search for a new chief executive soon. The supervisory board is currently holding exit talks CEO Heiko Schäfer and CFO Thomas Dressendörfer, however this process is understood to be “completely independent from the company’s financial situation”, according to sources close to the company.