UK camera retailer and high-street presence since 1935, Jessops, is entering one of the final stages for the firm's restructuring - initiated in early 2009 following several difficult trading years including the loss of 81 stores and redundancies since floatation of the firm in 2004. Ashurst LLP will be hosting an Extraordinary General Meeting at 10am on the 21st January, where shareholders will vote for a course of action to wind down the company (voluntarily or otherwise).

Shares closed at 0.33p per share yesterday. Jessops high-street stores were sold in September 2009 to "Snap Equity Ltd" and these continue to trade; the new firm is privately held leaving shareholders in Jessops PLC owning a share in a nominal £100,000 following the write off of £34m HSBC debt (HSBC owns 47% of Snap Equity). Liquidation will be handled by KPMG LLP of Birmingham.

 As an aside, Sigma users may find good deals on stock in the stores at this time, depending on mount and lens model; less popular mounts would appear to be heavily discounted in some stores with heavy regional variation.