Marks & Spencer quiet on bid speculation

27-Aug-2012 - Last updated on 28-Aug-2012 at 19:06 GMT

Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners is reported to be preparing a bid for M&S

Marks & Spencer (M&S) has refused to confirm or deny whether it had received expressions of interest from private equity firm CVC Capital Partners about acquiring its business.

“If we had received a bid, there would have been an announcement,” a spokeswoman told FoodManufacture.co.uk.

Commenting after a hike in its share price following reports of a bid, Shore Capital analysts Clive Black and Darren Shirley said CVC might have been carrying out preliminary work to consider whether to take the premium food retailer private when the news has leaked out.

Concerns about the size of the M&S’s capital investment programme and its weak performance in ladies' wear, were outweighed by positive aspects such as the performance of its food business, they said.

Leading brand in UK retailing

“We do not know if anything will emerge. If it did, then M&S should command a material premium to the present share price," said Black and Shirley. "M&S is a highly prized and leading brand in UK retailing with a strong international resonance and potential.”

The group had a strong balance sheet with “commendable fixed assets and manageable solvency ratios that should materially improve once the investment is complete”.

They added: “Shareholders should be careful about at what price they allow another management team to harvest the rewards of this work.”