Buyers circle collapsed cafe chain Patisserie Valerie

Collapsed café group Patisserie Holdings has attracted a number of suitors, its joint administrators confirmed on Monday.

David Costley-Wood, partner at KPMG and joint administrator, said offers had been received from both trade and finance buyers for “all and parts” of the Patisserie Valerie business.

He added: “We will now be taking a number of these offers forward, and hope to be able to progress in short order.

“We’d like to thank employees, suppliers, creditors and also Patisserie Valerie’s loyal customer for their invaluable support in helping us to continue to trade the business over the last two weeks.

The stricken café chain went into administration at the end of January after talks with its banks collapsed. The company has been rocked by an accounting scandal, which first emerged in October. Chairman and biggest shareholder Luke Johnson initially lent the Aim-listed company cash to keep it afloat before overseeing a £15m deeplly discounted rights issue.

But it appeared the accounting irregularities were worse that first than initially thought, with the company blaming “significant fraud” for calling in the administrators.

Around 70 of the chain’s near 200 stores and concessions have already closed.