Clinton Cards prepares for administration

Troubled retailer Clinton Cards has warned it expects its largest supplier to begin steps to place it into administration later on Wednesday. As a result, the company said it had requested for trading in its shares to be suspended with immediate effect. It said two of its banks sold £35m of loans to supplier American Greetings. While the banks had waived certain conditions for the loans, American Greetings is pressing for repayments that Clinton Cards cannot meet. Founded in 1968, it is the UK's biggest card retailer, operating 628 Clinton shops and 139 Birthdays stores, and employs more than 8,000 staff. In March, Clinton reported a loss of £3.7m for the six months to the end of January and said the outlook for 2012 was worse than previously thought. On Wednesday, it said like-for-like sales, which strip out the impact of sales from shops opened or closed in the past year, fell 3.5% in the past 14 weeks compared with a year earlier.