The fashion chain Bonmarche, part of the collapsed Peacocks group, has been sold to the private equity firm Sun European Partners.
The sale was arranged in a pre-pack deal before Peacocks was placed into administration last week.The price was not disclosed.
Sun European said they planned to close 160 of Bonmarche's 390 stores and lay off 1,400 of the 3,800 staff.
The announcement came after KPMG, Peacocks' administrators, fired 249 of the company's head office staff.
The collapse of Peacocks was the biggest retail failures in the UK since Woolworths (Xetra: 886853 - news) went under in January 2009.
:: On Monday New Look became the latest clothes retailer to reveal its difficulties.
Reports suggested it may close up to 100 of its high street stores over the next three years if it cannot negotiate better deals with its landlords.
The retailer, which is owned by the private equity groups APAX and Permira, will review its property costs and migrate more of its sales online.
The firm said too many of its shops have overlapping catchment areas.
Sales at New Look over Christmas were up 3.6% on the year before.
:: Meanwhile, the state of the UK mortgage market in the coming year is "difficult to call", according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
The group's latest survey found gross mortgage lending in December was an estimated £11.7bn, a 12% drop from £13.2bn in November (Stuttgart: A0Z24E - news) but a 12% rise from December 2010 (£10.5bn).
Total (Other OTC: TTFNF.PK - news) lending last year reached £140bn, up 3% on 2010.
CML chief economist Bob Pannell said: "There is a glimmer of light ahead for households in that real incomes could stabilise and perhaps even start rising by the end of the year.
"But, continuing eurozone problems mean that mortgage funding prospects are uncertain, so overall UK mortgage market conditions for the year ahead remain difficult to call."
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