Marks & Spencer (M&S) shares jumped in early trading today amid hopes retail tycoon Mr Philip Green's takeover approach will spark a £9 billion sterling battle for Britain's biggest clothing retailer.
The shares were up 2.4 per cent at 352p this morning, after hitting a new 18-month high of 362p shortly after the opening, valuing the 100-year-old mainstay of Britain's high street shopping districts at £8 billion.
The stock surged 20 per cent yesterday after Mr Philip Green, owner of BHS department stores as well as Top Shop and Dorothy Perkins fashion chains, said he planned to approach M&S with a cash-and-shares offer in the next few days.
Some analysts said a bid could kick-start an auction for M&S, whose stores also sell food, with private equity firms seen as the most likely rival suitors.
"There's no guarantee that an offer will go ahead, but equally it could open up the field to other potential bidders," Mr Richard Ratner, retail analyst at Seymour Pierce wrote in a research note.
He said Green would probably have to offer about 400 pence per share, or about £9 billion, to tempt shareholders and that a bid could draw in a private-equity player such as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.