Argos business to be sold to Barclay brothers

Argos-owner GUS today announced the £590m (€814m) sale of its home shopping businesses in the UK, Ireland and Sweden to the millionaire Barclay brothers in a move designed to cut its debts.

David and Frederick Barclay, who were estimated to be the 34th richest men in Britain by the Sunday Times Rich List, are set to merge GUS’s mail order arm with the Littlewood business they bought from the Moores family.

They also own the London Ritz hotel and newspapers including The Scotsman and The Business.

A spokesman said it was “too early to say” whether the transaction would result in job cuts among the nearly 17,500 people currently employed by the businesses.

In April GUS said conditions for its agency home shopping business had remained difficult in the first six months of the year, with sales 8% lower than the second half of the previous year.