House of Fraser has settled a legal challenge from landlords over plans to close 31 of its 59 stores next year.
The agreement – the terms of which are confidential – removes one obstacle as the troubled department store seeks a rescue deal.
The company’s store closure programme was announced in June but soon thrown off course when landlords issued a legal challenge, saying they were unfairly prejudiced by the process.
Creditors for House of Fraser approved the company voluntary arrangement (CVA), but landlords had started legal action filed in Scottish courts.
- READ MORE: House of Fraser future in doubt as saviour pulls out ...but could Mike Ashley be new white knight?
A spokesperson for the Joint Supervisors of the House of Fraser CVAs said: “The Joint Supervisors can confirm that there has been a settlement to the legal challenge to the House of Fraser CVAs.
“This commercial settlement has been reached to avoid the costs of litigation, and allows the companies to continue its investment process without the CVAs being subject to the risk of further legal proceedings.”
House of Fraser is one of a number of high street stores to seek controversial CVAs amid a rise in closures and failures.
Retailers have been hammered by Brexit-fuelled inflation, soaring business rates and falling consumer confidence.
- READ MORE: House of Fraser future in doubt as saviour pulls out ...but could Mike Ashley be new white knight?
Toys R Us and Maplin collapsed earlier this year, while the likes of Prezzo, Byron and Jamie’s Italian have shut restaurants and culled hundreds of jobs.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here