Britain’s Yardley Placed in Receivership

Yardley Group, one of the world’s oldest perfume and cosmetics houses, was placed into receivership in a last-ditch move to find a new owner and prevent the company from going under. The British company is to be run by accounting giant KPMG until a new owner can be found. Yardley is carrying $196 million of debt and has had annual losses running to several millions of dollars. KPMG said it plans to contact 20 to 30 possible buyers it declined to name. Yardley had been approached by possible suitors before it went into receivership. Yardley, established in 1770, was sold by SmithKline Beecham in 1990 for about $180 million, based on current exchange rates, to investors backed by buyout specialist Wasserstein Perella in a highly leveraged deal.