Department store group Beales is in talks to renegotiate its debt as it battles difficult high street trading conditions.

Auditor PwC is advising the 32-store retailer and it is understood the company may move its banking business away from HSBC, Sky News reported.

Beales has net debt of £5.2m and reported a loss of nearly £1m in the half-year to April 28, 2012.

The retailer’s current borrowing agreement with HSBC means its debt does not mature until 2016, and sources said the deal to switch the debt away from HSBC was far from complete.

Retail-week.com revealed earlier this week that chief executive Tony Brown is to leave the department store group to become managing director of fashion retailer Peacocks. He will be replaced by interim chief financial officer Michael Hitchcock.

Brown, a former BHS and Somerfield director, joined Beales in 2008 and took the retailer from 11 stores to 32 amid the recession. This included the acquisition of 19 shops from the Anglia Regional Co-operative Society in May 2011.

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