Wilkesboro, NC, Oct. 8--Lowe's executives are in Europe this week, meeting with retailers including Kingfisher, a British chain Home Depot is interested in acquiring.
The visit by Lowe's prompted one British newspaper to speculate that the North Carolina home improvement chain also may be interested in acquiring Kingfisher, Europe's largest do-it-yourself chain. But Lowe's and Wall Street analysts quickly downplayed that notion Tuesday.
Instead, Lowe's spokeswoman Chris Ahearn said, the European trip is giving the executives the opportunity to tell "the Lowe's story" to European investors and to track home improvement trends on the continent.
Ahearn confirmed that Lowe's executives were scheduled to meet with counterparts from European retail chains, but she did not offer specifics.
"I don't know who is meeting with whom," she said.
According to an article in The Mail on Sunday, Lowe's executives were to meet with Gerry Murphy, chief executive of Kingfisher PLC, which owns the B&Q Warehouses chain.
Kingfisher is the company several analysts believe Home Depot may acquire and use as a launching pad to enter Europe.
"The high-level contact (with Lowe's) will not escape the notice of Home Depot, which is also tipped as a potential bidder for Kingfisher," the article said.
The Mail also said the visit by Lowe's could indicate that a bidding war was brewing between Lowe's and Home Depot for Kingfisher.
But Michael Baker, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, said the Mail's report was off-base because a bidding war between Lowe's and Home Depot "is very, very unlikely."
Instead of trying to buy its way into Europe, Lowe's will concentrate its expansion plans on the United States during the next three to four years, Baker said.
The analyst said, however, he could see the rationale for Home Depot and Kingfisher to eventually "hook up."
During a trip in July to the United States, Kingfisher's Murphy met with Home Depot Chairman and Chief Executive Bob Nardelli.
Nardelli has said Home Depot would consider an operation in Europe if and when one made fiscal sense. Nardelli also has said Home Depot likely would enter the market through an acquisition, the same way it went into Mexico in 2001.
Home Depot declined to comment Tuesday on the visit by Lowe's executives.
