A deal that could see Next take a £15m stake in struggling chain Joules has been thrown into doubt after the latter’s profit warning.
Sky News reported that Next has not received enough financial information to make a formal offer, and is unlikely to make a deal at 33p a share, Joules’ stock price when talks were first reported.
Joules said in a 19 August trading update that it expects to report “a significant loss” over the first half of the year as well as a full-year loss despite an improved second-half performance.
It added at the time that talks with Next were “positive”.
