Patisserie Holdings PLC (LON:CAKE), the parent company of Patisserie Valerie, needs “an immediate injection of capital” if it is to stay afloat.
The cake chain rocked the markets on Wednesday when it suspended its shares – and its chief financial officer – while it investigated “significant, and potentially fraudulent, accounting irregularities”.
READ: Patisserie Valerie facing fight for survival
Patisserie immediately parachuted in a specialist team from Big Four accountant PwC to look deeper into its books, and the findings were worse than initially thought.
“The board has now reached the conclusion that there is a material shortfall between the reported financial status and the current financial status of the business,” read a gloomy update on Thursday afternoon.
“Without an immediate injection of capital, the Directors are of the view that that is no scope for the business to continue trading in its current form.”
The statement added that the company and its advisers were “assessing all options available to keep it trading”.