LIVERPOOL designer retailer Wade Smith re-opens today with its future still hanging in the balance.

The Mathew Street fashion outlet collapsed three weeks ago after its bank refused to provide any more financial backing and the store closed its doors last Thursday.

But with the shelves fully re-stocked, Wade Smith will begin trading with a major sale.

A decision about the store's future - including whether former-owner Robert Wade-Smith can buy the outlet back has been delayed as negotiations continue to be thrashed out.

By last Tuesday, receivers PKF had whittled down initial interest in the business to three serious offers. Two of the bidders were looking to buy the business as a going concern and one was interested in a combination of buying the business and taking the stock separately.

The three contenders undertook their due diligence all week.

But last night, PKF accountant Kerry Bailey said just two interested parties remained in the game - including Mr Wade-Smith.

The fashion entrepreneur and an anonymous bidder are said to be "neck-and-neck," but Ms Bailey said the offers received so far were "not acceptable".

Mr Wade-Smith, who is currently selling his flat in Liverpool's Beetham Plaza to assist with funding, said: "It's in the balance at the moment but as always I remain positive."

He said the flat was securitised against the deal and he would dig as deep as he could "in order to get the best result," but added that he was prevented from disclosing too much information about his bid by confidentiality terms that PKF had made him sign. He would only say that he has secured a mix of external equity and bank finance.

The Wade Smith business collapsed after incurring huge additional costs from sharply rising rents and from being left with increasingly obsolete stock following the closure earlier this year of its Trafford Centre store.

Mr Wade-Smith began trading in the early 1980s, selling imported trainers to a hungry market in Liverpool.

The news that Wade Smith had been plunged into administrative receivership comes during a bad year for the British retail industry with high street shops blaming a lack of consumer confidence and the rise of internet purchases for their woes.

Mr Wade-Smith said the building and roadworks currently going on in Liverpool, were deterring many shoppers from visiting city centre stores. A decision on the new ownership of

Wade Smith is expected today.