Burton in clear over store sale

THE LONG-RUNNING dispute between Burton Group and Dickson Concepts, the Hong Kong company, over the price Dickson paid for the London department store Harvey Nichols has been resolved, writes Sheel Kohli.

An arbitrator from Arthur Andersen has ruled that there should be 'a zero adjustment' of the completion balance sheet used for valuing the business before it was bought last year.

The announcement means that the final price agreed was in fact arrived at correctly and the accounting methods used by Burton were legitimate.

Dickson had been trying to recover between pounds 500,000 and pounds 1m.

The decision brings to an end an eight-month arbitration over the pounds 53.7m sale price paid by Dickson.

It had been agreed by the companies beforehand that the decision would be binding and there would be no appeal facility.

Burton's finance director, Richard North, said the decision vindicated Burton's belief that the balance sheet was accurate. 'The matter is now closed.'

Harvey Nichols' finance director, Simon Gardner, said: 'We obviously wouldn't have . . . gone to the great lengths that such an action involves if we didn't think that we had valid arguments.'