The battle for control of British department store chain Debenhams took a new twist today as a consortium which includes venture capital groups CVC Capital Partners and Texas Pacific upped its recommended offer to £1.72 billion.
Baroness Retail is effectively bidding against itself by tabling the new offer, which tops a £1.66 billion bid that it made last month. The increased offer of 470p compares with consortium's original 455p proposal and is 10.6% higher than the £1.5 billion offered in July by rival bidder Laragrove, which includes private equity group Permira and Debenhams' management.
Laragrove now faces having to decide whether to table a new proposal before an October 31 deadline set by the Takeover Panel. The takeover saga has been running since May, when Debenhams revealed that it had received a takeover approach from Permira.
