Made.com Group, the online furniture retailer, has drafted in advisers to help shore up its balance sheet as it weighs plans for a share sale to raise approximately £50m.
Sky News has learnt that the troubled London-listed company has hired PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to examine cost-cutting and other restructuring options.
City sources said on Wednesday that Made.com was progressing plans to raise equity almost a month after saying that it was exploring ways to strengthen its financial position.
The launch of a cash call is not thought to be imminent, but is said to be likely to take the form of a placing that would require shareholder approval.
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Successfully launching a share sale to raise in the region of £50m will be challenging for Made.com given that its shares have plummeted by almost 95% during the last year, leaving it with a market capitalisation of just £38m.
Last month, the company saw its shares sink after warning that revenue and profit for the year would be well below expectations.
Job cuts from its workforce of about 600 people are regarded as likely in the short term.
Made.com was established by Brent Hoberman, the Lastminute.com co-founder, and Ning Li, a Chinese entrepreneur, and went public in London last year with a valuation of £775m.
Its calamitous performance is partly the result of a crash in technology-related stocks, and the declining fortunes of consumer-facing companies exposed to soaring inflation.
A spokesperson for Made.com declined to comment.