The company had said in October it plans to close up to 50 of its underperforming stores, putting about 4,000 jobs at risk, after it reported a record full-year loss of nearly 500 million pounds.

Debenhams later declined a 40 million pounds loan offer from Mike Ashley's Sports Direct International Plc.

FTI and Debenhams did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Samantha Machado in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Sangameswaran S; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)