All this aside, does anyone else believe that department stores still have a future? As much as Iād like this to turn around and all of you lovely folks to make some money out of it, I really donāt see department stores surviving much longer.
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In their current guise, department stores will not survive so they need to evolve. Like him or not, Mike Ashley seems to know what heās doing so perhaps he is the one to save Debenhams.
Physical stores still very much have their place in retail - note Amazon moving to get their own bricks and mortar, with one of the reasons being to cut down on shipping costs.
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I sold my Debenhams shares this morning.
This was because Mike changed his plan to underwrite a rights issue. That meant if he won, I would possibly have to fork out money. If I didnāt I would lose all my shares in administration.
It looks like I was right to jump ship.
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Why would you need to fork out money?
The whole point of a company is limited liability to what your shareholding is. You may lose your shares, but they canāt ever get anything out of you.
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Ashley wants to issue Ā£150,000,000 in new shares. Ashley is hoping that no other shareholder accepts the rights to buy new shares so that he can take control of the company because he is backing the rights issue (i.e. he will buy the shares if no one else buys them).
It seemed pointless to keep them as Ashley didnāt really want to buy the shares at 5p (where I would make a profit). Either the rights issue would make my shareholding devalued so much they were even more worthless than today, I pay for the privilege to keep them todays value or I lose them in administrationā¦ and it looks like its heading for administration.
Yes, but you donāt have to fork out money. You may have made the right call to release equity by avoiding being diluted/losing by administration, but in either scenario you win by selling if either of those happens. However in either scenario at no time will you be required to pay anything up.
I never said I did had to pay money out. I said possibly and I have explained why.
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Shares suspended. Not looking goodā¦ 
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A point for the engineers at freetrade then, we could do with seeing a change to the shares, either when trying to buy or sell when shares are suspended. At the moment it just rejects the deal without explanation 
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Beginners questionā¦ So when shares are suspended, they cannot be bought or sold?
Is this to stop the share price tanking even further and to hold whatever value they currently have?
āNever try to catch a falling knifeā and all that jazzā¦
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If the shares have been suspended, why can I still put an order in on Freetrade? I feel there needs to be a warning or something to stop me.
Donāt worry, the order will be rejected at 4pm if itās a basic order. Weāve removed Debenhams from the Discover tab to avoid any confusion too.
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Good to know. Warnings next to stocks that are āunavailableā would be great! Could work when the markets are closed too - maybe ādimā them a little?
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Yes that sort of thing would be good. I think this is the first time a companyās found themselves in this situation since we launched & hopefully it wonāt happen too often but this is the type of situation that weāll handle more gracefully once we have time to work on the smaller details 
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Very true. Good learning curve for all of us!
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Is everyone dumping their shares or holding out?
Does anyone want to buy some shares in the UKs largest retailer?
They have 178 stores nationwide and sells a range of clothing and other goods.
Itās worth Ā£115 million and Iām certain it will continue to rise!
Shares are at Ā£1.14 but Iām happy to sell for Ā£1. I have 100 available so be quick!
Disclaimer: Information accurate as of 2012. I am also fully aware I am unable to sell these/no one would actually want them (unless Mike Ashley is interested?)
Iāve got some Deb shares. Presumably Iāll just lose them when it goes into administration? Iām not liable in any way beyond my investment. Sorry beginner question - just confused because a previous poster suggested he may have to pay money if he had held shares.