The liquidator for collapsed Internet clothing retailer boo.com is close to securing a buyer for the business and is likely to make an announcement next week, a spokesman for liquidator KPMG said yesterday. Several prospective buyers are in final talks with KPMG. One is rumoured to be Chello broadband, but the European Internet service provider declined to comment.
Chello, owned by cable TV operator United Pan-Europe Communications NV, plans to list 10 per cent of its equity on May 31st in a flotation estimated to be worth between €3.5 and €4.6 billion.
A KPMG spokesman said an announcement was likely to be made on Tuesday and that a break-up of boo.com was not ruled out.
KPMG is in a hurry to clean up the mess at boo.com, which collapsed this month in Europe's first big dot-com failure after a big haemorrhage of cash which spooked Net investors worldwide.
Creditors, most of whom are advertising agencies, are owed around $25 million.
