Sainsbury's gets sales boost as deadline looms for Argos bid

Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe has cheered a return to sales growth days before a crucial deadline on the grocer’s £1.4 billion bid for Argos owner Home Retail Group.

Coupe has until Friday to decide whether to embark on a career-defining tilt at HRG, along with its rival suitor, the South African retailer Steinhoff.

HRG’s boss John Walden has urged both sides to hurry up — saying the takeover was becoming a distraction — but Sainsbury’s hinted that it would leave any bid up to the wire of Friday at 5pm and would be happy to walk away.

The latest questions over the bid came as the supermarket revealed same-stores sales rose 0.1% in the nine weeks to March 12 — the first like-for-like sales rise since Coupe took over from Justin King in 2014 and the first positive growth for two years.

Coupe, who is bound by strict take-over rules, refused to say why Sainsbury’s would be the most suitable new owners for Argos or how likely a new bid would be.

But he reiterated that Sainsbury’s would not overpay. An informal offer of £1.4 billion has already been tabled, which analysts suggested could rise after Argos revealed an extra £100 million on its balance sheet last week.

Coupe said: “If this doesn’t happen… we’ll get on and execute perfectly well if we don’t do the deal. I don’t feel any personal pressure.”

Sainsbury’s has been stalking Argos for several years. It revealed in December that it had made serious enquiries into a takeover of its parent company following a trial of 10 Argos concessions in its biggest supermarkets.