SWEDEN: Another E-Calamity As Dressmart.com Ditched

News of Dressmart.com's death is gathering force today as various sources report that New Wave's proposed rescue plan has been scuppered by a minority of its shareholders.Dressmart.com, the Swedish-based e-tailer which operated across eight European countries, was expected to file for bankruptcy today. It is rumoured in the Swedish Press that the Dressmart sale was stopped by one Turkish and three Saudi shareholders, who together own about 8.4 per cent of New Wave.Jorgen Bender, the CFO of New Wave, said: "The sale fell through because a minority of shareholders disagreed. They opposed the reconstruction by New Wave, which would have happened if the sale had gone through. Sadly, it leaves Dressmart.com only with bankruptcy," silicon.com reported today.Roland Sundqvist, a court-appointed lawyer who acts as an external adviser to companies in financial difficulty, said: "We are most likely to file for bankruptcy today because the situation is very severe. The cancelled sale with New Wave leaves us with few options." Dressmart.com is thought to leave debts amounting to SKr40m ($4.3m). The upmarket menswear etailer received the majority of its funding, SKr35m ($3.8m), from AP-fund, one of Sweden's largest pension funds, which is owned by the Swedish Government. The other main investor was venture capital group Emerging Technologies. Swedish clothing company New Wave Group agreed to take over financially troubled Internet retailer Dressmart.com two weeks ago. New Wave, an established Swedish textile wholesaler and retailer, had said it would guarantee 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.08m) in a pact guaranteeing 25 per cent payment to Dressmart's creditors. Dressmart is the latest in a list of e-casualties, including boo.com, another Swedish-founded Internet retailer, clickmango.com and listing difficulties encountered by Letsbuyit.com. Dressmart.com was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.