Booktopia goes bankrupt after troubled two years; voluntary administrators called in

ASX-listed online book retailer Booktopia (ASX:BKG) has called in voluntary administrators McGrathNicol to restructure the company after a troubled two years on the bourse.

Shares in the company stayed put given the company has been in a self-requested suspension since mid-June.

At the time, the company wrote it wanted the suspension “as the outcomes from the strategic review including the seeking of additional funding have not progressed to the extent where it is capable of making an announcement.”

But it was the extension request a few days later that really laid out the whole plate of troubles. While Booktopia claimed undisclosed parties were looking at a buyout of the company and undertaking due diligence, it foremost pointed to the fact it “[faced] broader liquidity challenges and is seeking to identify alternative sources of funding.”

In March of this year, Booktopia was insinuating it was able to scrape through and stay afloat. Now it’s called in administrators. That could have stung to announce, given how liquid the company once was at the start of COVID.

In December of 2020 – the first year of COVID – the company listed with shares just below $3.00.

Its value proposition was tied into the overarching lockdown thematic that saw companies and products like Zoom become global giants and household names.

An online book retailer at a time governments were emptying streets and hurting bricks and mortar stores seemed to make sense – especially because people would be at home bored, and, students would be studying from home.

The company stayed in this range until August 2021 – reporting season – when traders began to be concerned by the company’s valuation versus fundamentals. By 2022, even while its share price fell and the company cut staff, Booktopia still boasted a fairly hefty market cap, completely unsupported by publicly available data on fundamental revenue.

However, in terms of share price, the stock has been a shadow of its former self since early 2023.

While I make no inference that Guzman Y Gomez are heading towards insolvency by any means, Booktopia’s story does ring familiar.

BKG last traded at 4.5cps.