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Company Information
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Contents
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Directors' report
for the period ended 30 December 2023
The directors present their report and the financial statements for Retail Agents Limited ('the company') for the 52 week period ended 30 December 2023.
The directors who served during the period were:
The directors are responsible for preparing the Directors' report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.
Company law requires the directors to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law the directors have elected to prepare the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice), including Financial Reporting Standard 102 ‘The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland'. Under company law the directors must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the company and of the profit or loss of the company for that period.
In preparing these financial statements, the directors are required to:
∙select suitable accounting policies for the company's financial statements and then apply them consistently;
∙make judgments and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
∙prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the company will continue in business.
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Directors' report (continued)
for the period ended 30 December 2023
This report was approved by the board on
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Independent auditor's report to the members of Retail Agents Limited
for the period ended 30 December 2023
We have audited the financial statements of Retail Agents Limited ('the company') for the period ended 30 December 2023, which comprise the Statement of comprehensive income, the Statement of financial position and the related notes, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 ‘The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland' (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the United Kingdom, including the Financial Reporting Council's Ethical Standard and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the directors' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the directors with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
The other information comprises the information included in the Directors' Report other than the financial statements and our Auditor's report thereon. The directors are responsible for the other information contained within the Directors' Report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.
Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.
We have nothing to report in this regard.
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Independent auditor's report to the members of Retail Agents Limited (continued)
for the period ended 30 December 2023
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:
∙the information given in the Directors' report for the financial period for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
∙the Directors' report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Directors' report.
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an Auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
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Independent auditor's report to the members of Retail Agents Limited (continued)
for the period ended 30 December 2023
Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements (continued)
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below. How the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities including fraud Our approach to identifying and assessing the risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, was as follows:
∙the Senior Statutory Auditor ensured that the engagement team collectively had the appropriate competence,
capabilities and skills to identify or recognise non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including knowledge specific to auditing retail consultancy companies;
∙we made enquiries of management as to where they considered there was susceptibility to fraud, and their
knowledge of actual, suspected and alleged fraud;
∙we identified the laws and regulations that could reasonably be expected to have a material effect on the financial
statements of the company through discussions with directors and other management at the planning stage, and from our knowledge and experience of retail consultancy companies;
∙the audit team held a discussion to identify any particular areas that were considered to be susceptible to
misstatement, including with respect to fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations; and
∙we focused our planned audit work on specific laws and regulations which we considered may have a direct
material effect on the financial statements or the operations of the company including the Companies Act 2006, and taxation legislation.
We assessed the extent of compliance with the laws and regulations identified above through:
∙making enquiries of management;
∙inspecting legal correspondence throughout the period for any potential litigation or claims; and
∙considering the internal controls in place that are designed to mitigate risks of fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations.
To address the risk of fraud through management bias and override of controls, we:
∙determined the susceptibility of the company to management override of controls by checking the implementation of controls and enquiring of individuals involved in the financial reporting process;
∙reviewed journal entries throughout the period to identify unusual transactions;
∙performed analytical procedures to identify any large, unusual or unexpected transactions and investigated any
large variances from the prior period;
∙reviewed accounting estimates and evaluated where judgements or decisions made by management indicated bias on the part of the company’s management;
∙tested the completeness of income by agreement from timesheet records maintained by staff and checking back to entries in the nominal ledger; and
∙carried out substantive testing to check the occurrence and cut off of expenditure.
In response to the risk of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, we designed procedures which
included:
∙agreeing financial statement disclosures to underlying supporting documentation;
∙enquiring of management as to actual and potential litigation and claims.
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Independent auditor's report to the members of Retail Agents Limited (continued)
for the period ended 30 December 2023
Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements (continued)
There are inherent limitations in our audit procedures described above. Irregularities that result from fraud might be inherently more difficult to detect than irregularities that result from error as they may involve deliberate concealment or collusion. Auditing standards also limit the audit procedures required to identify non-compliance with laws and regulations to enquiry of the directors and other management and the inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any.
A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council's website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our Auditor's report.
This report is made solely to the company's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an Auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the company and the company's members, as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
for and on behalf of
Statutory Auditor
130 Wood Street
EC2V 6DL
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Statement of comprehensive income
for the period ended 30 December 2023
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Statement of financial position
as at
The financial statements were approved and authorised for issue by the board on
The notes on pages 9 to 12 form part of these financial statements.
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Notes to the financial statements
for the period ended 30 December 2023
The company is a private company limited by shares and incorporated in England & Wales. Its registered office is 84 Grosvenor Street, London, W1K 3JZ.
2.Accounting policies
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention unless otherwise specified within these accounting policies and in accordance with Section 1A of Financial Reporting Standard 102, 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland' ('FRS 102') and the Companies Act 2006.
The following principal accounting policies have been applied:
The directors have prepared the financial statements on a going concern basis as they have received
confirmation from the company's parent undertaking, Hilco Capital Limited, that it is its current intention to offer financial support to the company, as required for a period of no less than 12 months from the date of approval of these financial statements. initially at fair value, net of transaction costs, and are measured subsequently at amortised cost using the effective interest method, less any impairment.
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Notes to the financial statements
for the period ended 30 December 2023
2.Accounting policies (continued)
Debt instruments (other than those wholly repayable or receivable within one year), including loans and other accounts receivable and payable, are initially measured at present value of the future cash flows and subsequently at amortised cost using the effective interest method. Debt instruments that are payable or receivable within one year, typically amounts due to and from group undertakings, are measured, initially and subsequently, at the undiscounted amount of the cash or other consideration expected to be paid or received. However, if the arrangements of a short-term instrument constitute a financing transaction, like the payment of a trade debt deferred beyond normal business terms or in case of an out-right short-term loan that is not at market rate, the financial asset or liability is measured, initially at the present value of future cash flows discounted at a market rate of interest for a similar debt instrument and subsequently at amortised cost, unless it qualifies as a loan from a director in the case of a small company, or a public benefit entity concessionary loan.
Financial assets that are measured at cost and amortised cost are assessed at the end of each reporting period for objective evidence of impairment. If objective evidence of impairment is found, an impairment loss is recognised in the Statement of comprehensive income. For financial assets measured at amortised cost, the impairment loss is measured as the difference between an asset's carrying amount and the present value of estimated cash flows discounted at the asset's original effective interest rate. If a financial asset has a variable interest rate, the discount rate for measuring any impairment loss is the current effective interest rate determined under the contract.
Recoverability of amounts due from connected companies
Included in amounts due from trade debtors and amounts owed by connected companies are balances that have estimation uncertainty. The directors have performed their assessment based on information available to them at the reporting date, including financial reporting information, comparable transactions, and net orderly liquidation valuations. The directors have used their extensive knowledge and experience to determine the recoverability of these balances, and third party evidence where available.
The company had no employees other than the directors (period ended 31 December 2022 - no employees), who did not receive any remuneration (period ended 31 December 2022 - £nil).
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Notes to the financial statements
for the period ended 30 December 2023
The company had no contingent liabilities at 30 December 2023 or 31 December 2022.
The company had no capital commitments at 30 December 2023 or 31 December 2022.
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Notes to the financial statements
for the period ended 30 December 2023
The smallest group of undertakings for which consolidated group accounts, which include the company, have been drawn up is headed by
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