Carpetright Purchased by Poker Player’s Hedge Fund

Carpetright will be acquired by Meditor, a hedge fund that is headed by a former poker player.

Talal Shakerchi’s hedge fund will purchase Carpetright

Carpetright has agreed to be purchased by Meditator. The hedge fund that will acquire the retailer is headed by Talal Shakerchi, a former professional poker player and the former fund manager for Old Mutual.

“Meditor has confirmed it now intends to engage with the company with a view to providing a more stable and longer-term funding platform,”

– reads a statement from Carpetright.

According to the agreement, Meditor Fund will purchase 70.1% of Carpetright. The hedge fund has had its eye on the high street brand for a while now. In May 2019, Meditor provided Carpetright right a £25.7 million advance loan. Prior to that, Shakerchi’s firm purchased 30% of the company’s shares.

“With Meditor’s support and financial backing and without the constraints of a public market listing, Carpetright will be well positioned to compete more effectively,”

– Shakerchi says.

Carpetright is just one of many UK high street retailers to face the danger of being shut down. Over the course of the past few years, we’ve seen many brick-and-mortar brands close up shop, with Mothercare being the latest casualty.

Homeware retailers seem to be having the most difficult time lately in today’s consumer market. According to The Guardian, the housewares market is seeing a slowdown due to low consumer confidence, which is preventing potential customers from purchasing expensive items like furniture and white goods.

In 2018, Carpetright launched a rescue restructuring which resulted in the closure of 90 showrooms. The company has also experienced steep competition from rival carpet company Tavi, which was opened in 2015. Many other high street shops in the UK are in the process of emergency restructures, such as Jessops, Clintons, Supercuts and Bonmarche.

About Talal Shakerchi

Talal Shakerchi is the head of Meditor, a British hedge fund. While his hedge fund is currently his main focus, he also continues to make the occasional professional poker appearance. In fact, he made the final table of the £25,000 No Limit Hold’em Short Deck event at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series.

In his professional poker career, Shakerchi has amassed $7.6 million in tournament winnings. He is fifth on the England All Time Money List, and his largest ever cash came in 2018, when he placed fourth in the $300,000 No Limit Hold’em event at the Super High Roller Bowl in Las Vegas and earned a prize worth $1.1 million.