Green denies pursuit of Sainsbury's

Retail billionaire Philip Green today moved to crush speculation that he was considering a bid for supermarket chain Sainsbury’s.

In a statement from his Revival Acquisitions investment vehicle, Mr Green said he wished “to clarify that he is not considering a possible offer for Sainsbury’s”.

The owner of Bhs and the Arcadia group was responding to press comments that linked him to a takeover of the struggling retail chain.

The speculation followed Mr Green’s appearance at the Retail Week Conference in London yesterday where he was asked if Sainsbury’s was a possible bid target after his £9.1bn (€13.1bn) campaign to land Marks & Spencer failed last year.

In reply to interviewer Andrew Neil, he quipped “not this week” and said he would wait until “something turns up that’s the right value”.

Stating he was occupied with the expansion of his existing portfolio of stores, Mr Green told the conference: “There is nothing at the moment of any scale that we will buy.”

Media reports last year claimed Mr Green made a £6.4bn (€9.23bn) takeover approach for Sainsbury’s in the summer of 2003, but walked away after failing to win the support of Sir Peter Davis, who was chairman at the time.

It is thought the two men also held talks on other areas of cooperation including the introduction of clothing from other parts of Mr Green’s retail empire to Sainsbury’s stores.

Sainsbury’s is considered to be vulnerable to a takeover because of a sluggish sales performance in recent years that has seen it fall behind Asda and Tesco in terms of market share.