Cattles staff face axe as outlets shut
DEBT-LADEN doorstep lender Cattles is preparing to wield the axe over 500 jobs, following the firm’s decision to shut 30 of its 180 Welcome Financial outlets.
Cattles, which has £2.4bn of debts, said it plans to make cuts in its sales and support teams and has told 510 employees of the Welcome business that they may be facing redundancy.
In a statement, the lender said: “As part of an ongoing comprehensive review of the Welcome business, Cattles proposes the closure of 30 branches where leases have expired or are due to expire and a reduction in the number of its sales and support teams.”
The lender added that it was still in “constructive discussions” with its creditors over a standstill agreement on its debt.
The group’s shares have been suspended since April, following an investigation into the accounting procedures it used to calculate impairment levels, a probe which eventually forced out six directors.
A standstill agreement on £1.3bn worth of its debt has already been secured, but Cattles is also looking to strike a similar deal with bondholders over £400m in debt.
Cattles, which raised £70m with the sale of its invoice finance arm AnaCap to private equity firm Financial Partners last month, has not yet filed its accounts for 2008, pending a recalculation of its impairment charges.