Department store group Beales can push ahead with a CVA after creditors today unanimously voted through the measure.

The group, which has 35 stores, is seeking rent reductions on around a third of its shops to avoid going into administration. 

In the CVA vote today 93% of creditors voted in favour of cutting rents. It needed at least 75% to vote it through.

KPMG restructuring partner Rob Croxen said the CVA will “allow Beales to take its first critical step towards turning the business around, tackling head on the issue of onerous legacy leases which have hampered the organisation in recent years”.

He described it a “positive outcome for Beales’ creditors and good news for customers and employees”. 

Beales’ chairman Stuart Lyons  previously said that “legacy rents have been dragging the group down”.

It is the second department store group in the space of 24 hours to have been rescued by the insolvency process after BHS was successful yesterday with a CVA.

BHS was asking for rent reductions of up to 75% on some stores, also blaming a “legacy issue of over-market rents”.