Bonmarché is on track to be taken private after Philip Day convinced the retailer’s last major investors to sell its stake.

Investment fund Artemis offloaded its 12% stake in the embattled high street fashion chain yesterday to Day’s Dubai-based holding company Spectre.

The sale brings Day’s total stake in Bonmarché to more than 82%, above the 75% needed to take the business private.

At the beginning of July, another institutional investor, Cavendish Asset Management, sold its 10.8% stake to Day for £600,000.

Day, the boss of Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group, which owns Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Peacocks, Jaeger and Austin Reed among others, launched a cut-price offer for Bonmarché in April after snapping up a 52.4% stake. 

His initial £5.7m offer was rebuffed by Bonmarché as it “fundamentally undervalued” the business in the eyes of the board, but that decision was reversed following tough first-quarter trading. 

Day responded by imposing a deadline on his offer to buy the retailer, saying he was worried about its ability to operate as a going concern, an issue also flagged by its auditor PwC.

The deadline was due to expire tomorrow.

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