How to avoid the next retail casualty

With Clinton Cards joining the list of high street retail disasters, how can you avoid investing in the next casualty? Phil Oakley explains one good way of spotting trouble ahead.

This week, Clinton Cards joined the growing list of high street casualties. The latest big name retail implosion comes just a few weeks after Game Group ran out of luck.

So how can investors spot the next potential collapse? One vital safety check we've mentioned before is to look at the ability of retailers to pay their fixed charges mainly debt interest and rent payments.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

Phil spent 13 years as an investment analyst for both stockbroking and fund management companies.

 

After graduating with a MSc in International Banking, Economics & Finance from Liverpool Business School in 1996, Phil went to work for BWD Rensburg, a Liverpool based investment manager. In 2001, he joined ABN AMRO as a transport analyst. After a brief spell as a food retail analyst, he spent five years with ABN's very successful UK Smaller Companies team where he covered engineering, transport and support services stocks.

 

In 2007, Phil joined Halbis Capital Management as a European equities analyst. He began writing for MoneyWeek in 2010.