Photo: Aquascutum

HONG KONG - Fashion retailer YGM Trading Ltd said it has entered into exclusive talks with the administrators of failed British clothing firm Aquascutum Ltd over the potential purchase of the business and its assets.

YGM Trading, which already owns the licences for the Aquascutum brand in Asia, said in a filing to the Hong Kong bourse late on Wednesday that it has been granted an exclusivity period from May 1-9 to negotiate a sale and purchase agreement.

For statement click here.

YGM Trading said in April that it was in initial discussions over acquiring rights for the British clothing label outside its Asian territories.

Aquascutum, the 161-year old British-based luxury clothing manufacturer which has dressed Queen Elizabeth, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, is the latest high-profile fashion name hit by Britain's retail downturn.

Restructuring, recovery and insolvency firm FRP Advisory said in April that two of its partners had been named administrators of the 161-year old loss-making firm, which employs 250 people in the United Kingdom.