The market value of stricken Internet retailer Letsbuyit.com fell below four million euros ($3.77 million) today as management announced it would oppose a filing for bankruptcy at a hearing tomorrow.
After yesterday's trading suspension was lifted on the Frankfurt Neuer Markt, Letsbuyit.com's battered paper fell to an intraday low of just euro 0.22, less than half of yesterday's close of euro 0.46 and a fraction of the July high of 6.45.
The share recovered somewhat to stand at euro 0.30 by around 11.40 (Irish time), and heavy trading volumes of nearly four million shares suggested the stock is being seen by some brave investors as an outside recovery play.
The company's management, certainly, has not given up the ghost. A statement from Dutch legal firm Van Doorne, appointed to administer the company's debt moratorium, said Letsbuyit would oppose Van Doorne's own application for Letsbuyit's bankruptcy.
"The present management still sees chances for survival and has indicated it will put forward a defence", Mr Van Doorne said in a statement.
Although Van Doorne has been working together with Letsbuyit to find an eleventh-hour rescue for the debt-heavy e-tailer, it is not part of management under Dutch law and the two parties are able to act independently of one another.
Mr Van Doorne said the application for protection from creditors had been filed because of the lack of a substantial financing bid, high costs, and a fundamental difference in opinion between management and the supervisory board.
Reuters