Asda could be eyeing control of Littlewoods
Thought to have approached the Barclay brothers with an offer.
01/02/05 Littlewoods, the retail group, could become the centre of a bid battle following two approaches valuing its 186-strong store chain at about £500m.
Asda, the supermarket group owned by Wal-Mart, and an unnamed rival bidder are thought to have approached the Barclay brothers, the twin entrepreneurs who bought Littlewoods in 2002.
Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay - the property-to-media multi-millionaires - are exploring the possibility of selling the stores. But it is thought that any offer would have to be "substantially higher" than £500m.
A person familiar with the situation said: "The Barclays are responding to an approach. It is at early stages and they will wait to see which other offers emerge before deciding to sell."
A clutch of retailers - New Look, Primark, Next - could be interested in the store portfolio. It is also thought that private equity firms may be interested in acquiring the 119 Littlewoods stores and 67 Index stores.
Littlewoods was acquired by the Barclays in 2002 for £750m. They then bought the mail order business from GUS for £590m and merged the groups in early 2004.
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