Boohoo has announced plans to buy the Debenhams website and brand in a £55m deal.

The deal was announced this morning and whilst Boohoo is buying the brand’s name and website – it will not save the 118 department stores, which will all close down. The store closures could result in 12,000 job losses.

Boohoo said in a statement: “The group will only be acquiring the brands and associated intellectual property rights. The transaction does not include Debenhams’ retail stores, stock or any financial services.”

The Debenhams website is in the UK’s top ten retail websites and receives 300m million visits a year.

Mahmud Kamani, executive chairman at Boohoo, commented on the deal: “This is a transformational deal for the group, which allows us to capture the fantastic opportunity as e-commerce continues to grow. Our ambition is to create the UK’s largest marketplace.

“Our acquisition of the Debenhams brand is strategically significant as it represents a huge step which accelerates our ambition to be a leader, not just in fashion e-commerce, but in new categories including beauty, sport and homeware.”

Following the news, Boohoo shares jumped 3.7% to 348.7p per share.

John Lyttle, chief executive of the online retailer, said: “The acquisition of the Debenhams brand is an important development for the group, as we seek to capture incremental growth opportunities arising from the accelerating shift to online retail.

“We have developed a successful multi-brand direct-to-consumer platform that continues to disrupt the markets that we operate in.

“The acquisition represents an exciting strategic opportunity to transform our target addressable market through the creation of an online marketplace that leverages Debenhams’ high brand awareness and traffic through the development of beauty and fashion partnerships connecting brands with consumers,” he added.

Boohoo shares are currently trading +3.39% at 344.17 (0836GMT).

Over 150 London pubs, bars and restaurants closed permanently in 2020.

As the pandemic has led to huge impacts in the sector, the number of venues dropped from 3,460 venues to 3,303 – a 4.5% drop.

Closures over 2020 were approximately three times higher than closures in 2019. In addition to London, Birmingham and Leeds also saw a large number of closures in the sector with a drop of 8.5% and 5.6% respectively.

Across the whole of the UK, 10,000 pubs and restaurants closed in 2020.

Mark Lynch, Partner at corporate finance house, Oghma Partners, commented on the number of closures for pubs and restaurants in 2020: “This is sadly not the last time we will see this type of data for pubs, restaurants and casual dining as thousands more will close throughout 2021, impacting directly and indirectly on huge sections of the UK population. Lockdown restrictions have essentially frozen Food to Go and food service providers that are unable to service clients as per normal. Pubs, restaurants and food service manufacturers and, to a lesser extent, Food to Go capacity are disappearing from the market. However, we are seeing positive sales growth for direct to consumer and supermarket companies. Indeed, we have already seen a significant shift in consumer behaviour which has boosted growth for those companies in 2020 and could be set to increase as they acquire more market share.

“Unsurprisingly, both overall deal volume and value for 2020 are the lowest recorded since we began this review back in 2009. Despite all the market uncertainties surrounding Covid-19 and Brexit, the appetite from overseas and financial investors has remained relatively positive throughout 2020, accounting for 27.1% and 20.3% of total deal volume, respectively. In 2021 we expect distressed deals to be a continued feature of activity, but our expectation remains that it won’t be until Q2 2021 that we will see year on year increases in M&A activity,” he added.

John Lewis has announced plans to repay £300m in government loans following strong Christmas trading.

The department store will be paying the loan two months earlier than it was due to be repaid thanks to stronger than expected sales over the Christmas period.

John Lewis said in a statement: “Despite the headwinds of the last year when John Lewis stores were closed for several months, and future trading volatility, the partnership believes it has sufficient liquidity [to repay the loan early],”

“Trading during the peak, which includes Black Friday and the Christmas period, held up better than anticipated. As a result, we expect our full-year profits to be ahead of profit guidance provided at our half-year results last September, where we said the most likely outcome would be for a small loss or a small profit for 2020-21.”

Whilst the department store has said it will be repaying the loan, it has still refused to repay the business rates relief received.

In November, the group revealed plans for a £300m cost-cutting drive, which involved cutting 1,500 head office jobs.

Sharon White, the chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, said: “Our partnership plan sets a course to create a thriving and sustainable business for the future. To achieve this we must be agile and able to adapt quickly to the changing needs of our customers.

“Losing partners is incredibly hard as an employee-owned business. Wherever possible, we will seek to find new roles in the partnership and we’ll provide the best support and retraining opportunities for partners who leave us.”