(Alliance News) - Shares in troubled Safestyle UK PLC were suspended from trading on Friday and the company warned shareholders will be wiped out even if a sale of the company occurs.

The retailer and manufacturer of PVCu replacement windows and doors said it requested for its shares to be suspended amid its financial uncertainty and "limited working capital".

The stock last traded at 0.32 pence, giving it a lowly market capitalisation of around GBP443,000.

Safestyle on Thursday said it did not expect to receive a capital injection or new financing.

The Bradford-based firm did note that it is still in active discussions with a shortlist of interested parties, though it said Friday it has "become increasingly unlikely" that any sale of the firm will return value to shareholders.

Safestyle earlier in October said it was working with shareholders and third party investors to secure a cash injection and is discussing ways to strengthen its balance sheet. As part of these discussions, Safestyle engaged with "a number of third parties who have expressed interest in investing in the group," it said at the time.

In late-September, it said revenue in the half-year ended July 2 declined 5.3% on-year to GBP74.1 million from GBP78.3 million. Its pretax loss stretched to GBP6.7 million from GBP2.8 million and it decided against interim dividend, after 0.4 pence per share payout a year prior.

"The trading context of the UK economy and consumer confidence remains extremely difficult. Encouragingly, inflation is beginning to show some signs of moderating, but that follows a period of sustained high inflation. The impact of significantly higher interest rates than expected is clearly impacting consumers' disposable income," Safestyle said in its half-year results.

By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor

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