Peckham Teams with HBOS for Carpetright Bid

Rainham, England, July 11, 2007--Carpetright founder Lord Harris of Peckham is said to have teamed up with banking giant HBOS over a possible joint bid to take the company private, according to the Aberdeen Press & Journal.

The newspaper reported that Lord Harris is working on submitting a formal offer with HBOS for the floor-covering specialist.

The firm's founder is understood to have mooted the idea of a possible joint bid with HBOS and Saudi investment firm Olayan Group last summer, but decided against an offer when the share price rose to around GBP13, according to the report.

It is not known whether Olayan is part of the current reported offer talks.

Carpetright confirmed last month that chief executive Lord Harris was considering taking the company private and formed an independent committee to consider the request, with Deutsche Bank as adviser.

The group has suffered a decline in sales since the start of the year, saying last month that recent interest-rate rises had been having a significant, adverse impact.

Carpetright reported pre-tax profits up 4.4% to GBP67million in the year to April 28, but like-for-like sales in its core market of the UK and Ireland declined by 1.4%.

In April, the group said like-for-like sales had fallen by 5.2% in the 10 weeks to April 12.

Lord Harris owns a 23.4% stake in the firm which has more than 600 stores and concessions throughout the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium.