River Island will have to wait to see what the future holds for the business as the final ruling has been moved to a different date.

The embattled fashion retailer was due to hear from the High Court on Thursday (August 7) on whether is restructuring plans will be approved, however, Retail Week understands that due to a lack of judge availability, the hearing has had to be moved back.

The retailer’s future will now be decided instead on Friday morning.

This week, Retail Week was the first to report that the retailer had failed to win the approval of many of its landlords at a vote last Friday that will be taken into account by the High Court on Friday. Despite this, the retailer remains confident that it will get the right result at the hearing after 80% of creditors backed the restructuring proposals overall, which involves closing 33 stores, cutting rents on a further 71 and writing off debts.

Due to the way the vote was structured, not every individual landlord class hit the 75% threshold needed to approve the proposals.

A River Island spokesman added: “River Island circulated its proposals for a Restructuring Plan to creditors on June 20th. In combination with the company’s ongoing Transformation Strategy, the Plan is a proactive measure to place the company on a firm footing. We have been having positive conversations with key stakeholders and are confident that we will achieve approval of the Plan in the coming days.”

It was reported by Sky News earlier today that institutional landlord British Land has hired City law firm Hogan Lovells to scrutinise both the restructuring plans of River Island and Poundland. 

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