Retail takeovers abandoned

The downturn in high street spending and increasing gloom in the retail world has led

to plans for a number of retail takeover deals being abandoned.

Earlier this year, the owners of a string of retailers and consumer goods companies hired investment bankers amid hope those dealmakers would be able to sell these businesses at a decent price.

The retailers on the market included the likes of Bonmarché, one of Britain's largest clothing chains for women over the age of 45, and Aurum, which owns the jeweller Goldsmiths. According to sources, Peacocks has taken Bonmarché off the market altogether and the Aurum sale is understood to have been put on hold until the New Year.