Courts attracts buyer interest

Courts hopes to re-open its 88 UK stores by the end of the week

UK home furnishings retailer Courts is already attracting "serious" interest from potential buyers, the firm's administrators have said.

Courts suspended trading in its shares on Monday after it failed to restructure £280m ($535m) of debts.

The administrators said that Courts' 88 UK stores should reopen for business by Friday at the latest.

The stores were closed on Tuesday to allow an urgent stock-take to take place across the business.

We bought the sofas for our first home with money that my granddad gave us, and it is very unlikely that we will see the money again. We are totally distraught, as that's the last time we will have such funds again Helen, Hertfordshire BBC News readers tell of their plight

"We had to shut the stores to make sure we could count the stock, decide who had title to it and bring some order to proceedings," Mick McLoughlin, head of KPMG corporate recovery and joint administrator, told BBC News.

"Hopefully it will be completed either today or tomorrow so the stores will open Thursday or at the latest Friday."

Hopes rise

Courts operates 22 High Street stores and 66 superstores in the UK, employing about 2,500 staff.

COURTS Set up in 1850 in Canterbury 350 stores in 20 countries 95 stores in Caribbean countries Staff of 10,000 Suffering from poor sales in the UK, the weak dollar and Hurricane damage to Caribbean business

The company also has several overseas operations, although these are not affected by the UK side of the business going into administration and are trading as normal.

"Our key objectives in this case are to protect first of all at the plc level the valuable overseas subsidiaries which aren't affected by the UK administration, and secondly to get as much of the UK business sold as going concerns as possible," Mr McLoughlin said.

"We've already got serious expressions of interest.

"Hopefully we will be able to sell significant parts of the business as going concerns."

KPMG also said people who had paid deposits using credit cards on goods not yet delivered should contact their credit card companies directly.

However, any people who had paid with cash were classed as unsecured creditors and so were likely to lose their money.

KPMG said customers and shareholders seeking further information should call the helpline number on 0870 950 1333.