Borders Books Australia $118 million in Debt

After the collapse of the Borders books franchise, administrators in Australia have revealed that the company had only $1 million cash in the bank and group entitlements owed to staff of $7.8 million. Administrators Ferrier Hodgson told creditors this morning, that owners of Borders, the REDGroup, had $6.4 million in cash when it went into administration and debt of at least $118 million.

Unfortunately it is presumed administrators will look at closing stores, as all the company has is limited cash in bank, according to Steve Sherman of Ferrier Hodgson. The cause of the problems for the REDGroup included the massive debt, plus problems competing with online retail business, and changing market dynamics.

Mr Sherman also indicated that if stores were to be closed prior to the company going into administration, creditors should know within 72 hours which stores they will be. Creditors owed include publishers, publications, Westfield, and suppliers.


Leave a Comment

We don't require your email address, or your name, for anyone to leave a comment. If you do add an email address, you may be notified if there are replies to your comment - we won't use it for any other purpose. Please make respectful comments, which add value, and avoid personal attacks on others. Links are not allowed in comments - 99% of spam comments, attempt to post links. Please describe where people may find additional information - for example "visit the UN website" or "search Google for..." rather than posting a link. Comments failing to adhere to these guidelines will not be published.