Lord Kirkham in DFS store debt dilemma

摘要

Yorkshire retail billionaire and Tory party donor Lord Kirkham faces the prospect of losing control of a property portfolio that was worth more than £250m at the top of the market. A company owned by DFS founder Kirkham is in talks with a syndicate of lenders about 27 properties for which a £189m loan is six months past its expiry date and in breach of a covenant. The lenders are understood to be at loggerheads over what to do with the portfolio, but have the right to repossess it following a debt restructuring in 2009. The portfolio is virtually impossible to refinance because of the high level of leverage.