The value of Shop Direct’s bonds plunged yesterday after the debt market took a dim view of a £25 million “dividend payment” to the online retailer’s billionaire owners, the Barclay brothers. In events that one debt trader described as “a spectacle that ranged from inept to scandalous”, the retailer behind Very.co.uk and Littlewoods spooked the bond market after it could not properly explain why £25 million had been paid to a holding company controlled by Sir Frederick and Sir David Barclay. The payout was revealed as part of a wider update to bondholders this week in which Shop Direct also increased its provision for payment protection insurance claims by a further £100 million and disclosed that its debt had increased by £160 million on the…

Source: The Times May 24, 2018 23:00 UTC