Superdry suspends trading in shares as full-year results delayed

Superdry has suspended trading in its shares as the British brand’s auditors finalise their review of its accounts.

The fashion retailer said it expected to publish its results by the end of this week as it works with the auditor RSM to “complete the final technical points” within its full-year figures. It said shares had been suspended as it was required to publish its annual accounts by 29 August under stock market rules.

“The board confirms that the delay is a result of normal procedures taking longer than anticipated during the first year that RSM are auditing the company,” Superdry said in a statement.

The suspension in trading related to its audit comes after a tough year or so for Superdry, with the company being forced to take a one-year £25m loan from the restructuring specialist Hilco at an interest rate of 10.5% before the Bank of England base rate increase earlier this month.

In early 2018 the group’s share price was above £20. Before the suspension its share price was 56p.

Analysts at Peel Hunt had predicted that Superdry would announce a £16.5m loss on flat sales for the year to the end of April and that poor weather in July and August would have meant that its new financial year would not have got off to a strong start.

The share price has dived after a series of fundraisings by Superdry.

The group raised £12m from shareholders in May after a damp spring and the cost of living crisis hit sales, while trade with wholesale partners was disappointing.

In March, Superdry raised £40m by selling its Asia Pacific brand assets to the South Korean firm Cowell Fashion Company to try to reduce its debts. The business has also said it would make £35m in cost savings.

In December last year the company secured an £80m loan facility, including £30m from the specialist lender Bantry Bay Capital, a firm backed by the hedge fund Elliott Advisors, amid what it called “extremely challenging” trading conditions in the UK leading up to Christmas.

Uncertainty around negotiations on that loan prompted it to warn in October 2022 that “a material uncertainty exists” as to whether it would remain a going concern.

The co-founder Julian Dunkerton, who owns a fifth of the company, took back control of the firm in a boardroom coup in 2019, and has slashed costs and attempted to revitalise the image of the brand.

Dunkerton, who started out selling clothes on a Cheltenham market stall, launched Superdry with the designer James Holder in 2003.