Game Group, the parent company of multichannel retailer Game, is in talks with both its suppliers and its lenders as it battles to survive.
In a statement issued this week, the group, which has in recent months been working to transform itself into a multichannel retailer in response to a sales downturn in its traditional markets, said: “The board of Game is working actively to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.
“This includes ongoing discussions with suppliers, seeking access to the original facility or alternative sources of funding, and reviewing the position of all of its assets in the UK and international territories.”
While these discussions continued it had been unable to source new products from a number of suppliers, it said.
Game’s future appears to hang on a knife edge. “It is uncertain whether any of the solutions currently being explored by the board will be successful or will result in any value being attributed to the shares of the company,” the statement concluded.
Game Group shares, which have slumped over the course of the last year, have fallen further in response to the news. At the time of writing they stood at 1.14p, already 10.94% down from last night’s close of 1.28p, and dramatically down on the 61.50p that they were selling for a year ago.
If Game does fail, its hopes of reshaping itself for a multichannel future will have been frustrated. The company said in September, as it released interim results, that it aimed to improve its share of the online games retail market to 39%, from 19%, by next year. It was investing in new ways of playing games, including online, cloud-based gaming in response to falling sales for its core offerings of PC and video-based games.
At the time it said sales of digital products were growing, and had risen by 40% in the half-year to July 31. However, like-for-like sales were down by 9.9% in the period and turnover fell to £558.8m from £624.6m at the same point in the previous year. Pre-tax losses had also widened to £51.5m from £21.5m previously.
