Property developer bailout hopes for failed high street retailer.
Over the last two weeks Ardeshir Naghshineh, property investor and businessman, has publicly championed the cause for keeping intact one of the oldest names in British retailing, Woolworths - only to see it fall into administration on Wednesday evening.
Why would a man best known for his work in property including the Tolworth Tower and London's Centre Point be interested in Woolworths to buy a 10% stake in a business valued at £100m at the time? By the time Woolworths went into administration its market value had plummeted to £30m. Mr. Naghshineh saw Woolworths' future as a major retailer which concentrated its efforts on smaller and medium-sized high street stores rather than bigger out-of-town branches.
Some thought he might see Woolworths as bargain stock - going at 6p a share at the time - and a far cry from its retailing heyday, before the rise of the internet and competition from the supermarkets. The company's 30,000 employees around the country may well wonder if Naghshineh represents their best and last hope of seeing in the new year.
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