Rival Bid Planned for Debenhams

John Lovering, the entrepreneur who recently tried to take over the Somerfield supermarket group, is to make a GBP 1,5b bid for Debenhams, the department store chain.

Lovering has set up a bidding consortium with Texas-Pacific Group, the American buyout house, and CVC Capital Partners, a British private-equity firm.

Last month, Debenhams, which has 102 stores, revealed it had a received an indicative 425p-per-share offer from Permira, a private equity firm. Debenhams closed on Friday at 403p.

Permira, meanwhile, has announced that if its bid succeeds, it will appoint Stuart Rose, the former chief executive of the Arcadia fashion group, as non-executive chairman. Permira is in the middle of carrying out due diligence on Debenhams and is expected to decide whether to make a formal offer in the next there weeks. It is also thought to be searching for bank finance.