Matalan is reportedly seeking a £29m cash injection through the sale of its headquarters in Merseyside, as it continues to find ways to navigate the coronavirus pandemic.
According to The Sunday Times, the office, located in Knowsley industrial estate, is being marketed at £28.5m.
The deal is reported as being a sale and leaseback.
Since lockdown, Matalan has furloughed more than 11,000 of its workforce under the government’s jobs retention scheme as well as deferring tax and national insurance payments and accessing “the 12-month business rates exemption worth over £40m”.
Matalan has since “unfurloughed” over 5000 workers in an effort to support its 175 reopenings over the weekend.
The retailer also borrowed more than £25m via the government’s Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
Matalan’s multimillionaire founder John Hargreaves has been met with criticism amid reports he is trying to avoid pumping more of his own cash into the business.
Hargreaves said he would pump £25m into the business if Matalan owes more than a combined £50m through government loans and its revolving credit facility by the end of 2021.
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The news comes soon after Matalan kicked off a search for a new chairman when John Mills announced his resignation from the retailer.
Earlier this year, Matalan requested a three-month rent holiday, alongside other retailers such as New Look and Monsoon Accessorize, just as the pandemic escalated in the 海角视频 and non-essential retailers were forced to temporarily shut down.
Matalan declined to comment.