The directors of finance company Thorn Group have thrown in the towel, agreeing to sell what is left of the struggling company to major shareholder Somers Ltd. Thorn announced yesterday that it has entered into a scheme implementation deed with Somers, a Bermuda-based investment company that already holds a 49 per cent interest in Thorn. Somers will mop up the rest of the company at A$1.17 a share, valuing the company at a little more than $40 million.  When Somers first approached Thorn, on August 25, the offer was $1.62 a share. But the price has been revised to take account of a special dividend and return of capital announced by Thorn in August 31. Somers is acquiring a cashbox, after Thorn progressively sold off its businesses over the past couple of years. Its problems began during the pandemic, when it closed its Radio Rentals stores and moved the consumer finance and appliance rental business online. That move did not work out and it sold the business in 2021. It turned its attention to its SME asset and invoice finance business, promising to launch a suite of new business finance products. But there were problems there as well. The commercial business was funded by a warehouse facility. Between May 2020 and July 2022 the warehouse was in runoff due to breaches of its arrears covenant. Thorn was unable to sell its originations into the warehouse during this period.  The warehouse was restructured, with a limit of $200 million, and recommenced in August last year, but by then the business was in terminal decline. What was left of it was sold to Resimac in June, with the transaction completed earlier this month. It was paid around $15 million for a book with receivables of $150 million. Its financial report for the year to March 2023 included a cash balance of $28.8 million. As for its plans for Thorn, Somers said that once the sale to Resimac was completed, Thorn would “commence a staged transition of its business with a focus on active investment in the fintech sector that aligns with its core business strategy as a diversified small business focused financial services organisation”. Thorn already has one investment – 8.6 per cent of consumer finance company MoneyMe. Somers’ other big investment in the Australian financial services industry is Resimac. It holds 54 per cent of the non-bank mortgage lender.