Idee Department Store auction pushed back to April 18

The financially troubled Idee Department Store (衣蝶百貨) yesterday said it would postpone its planned auction tomorrow to April 18 as trademark and rental problems persist.

"One of the main problems for Idee is that our potential buyers feel that the rent is too high, which they considered to be cost-ineffective," the retailer's public relations manager Rebecca Ouyang (歐陽翎) said by telephone yesterday.

In addition to the higher rent, China Rebar Co (中國力霸), Idee's parent company, said in a press release yesterday that uncertainty over whether its major creditor, Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行), would abandon the impounding of the Idee trademark, has also made it difficult for potential buyers to project operating costs.

"As Idee's brand name and rent issues have lowered our potential buyers' willingness to bid in the next auction, China Rebar decided to postpone the date of the auction to April 18 so that the company has more time to resolve these uncertainties," it said.

Mega International filed with the District Court to impound Idee's brand name on Nov. 6 last year after China Rebar failed to pay off debt.

On Feb. 18, Idee shareholders approved a reduction in the minimum bidding price from the original NT$1.8 billion (US$58.54 million) to NT$705 million in an attempt to speed up the transfer of Idee's ownership to a new buyer.

The new floor bidding price matched the offer made by the sole bidder, Taipei-based Shinkong Synthetic Fibers Corp, (新光合成纖維) at Idee's last auction on Nov. 26.