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11 December 2018
By Maynard Paton
Perhaps the most spectacular share collapse of the year has been that of Patisserie Holdings, the owner of the Patisserie Valerie chain of cake shops.
I am sure you already know the grim story.
To recap, during October the firm confessed to “significant, and potentially fraudulent, accounting irregularities and therefore a potential material mis-statement of the Company’s accounts.”
The shares — which had traded at 429p and supported a £440m market cap — have been suspended ever since.
An emergency £15m was then raised by shareholders at 50p a share, while a further £10m was loaned to Patisserie by group boss Luke Johnson.
Before the fraud came to light, Patisserie said its net cash was £28m. Now the group estimates net debt might be £10m.
So, the obvious question:
Could we have spotted Patisserie’s fraud using SharePad?
Simply click here to read my Patisserie Holdings article for SharePad.
Maynard Paton