M&S: Shares dive as Green quits

SHARES in Marks & Spencer suffered today, falling 19p to 345p amid hectic trading as hedge funds and short-term speculators attempted to bail out of the stock following Philip Green's decision last night to abandon his £9.1bn bid. More than 220m shares changed hands.

Despite the 5% fall, the share price is still substantially higher than before Green made his takeover proposal at the end of May. At the time M&S was standing at just 290p.

But it piles on the pressure for new M&S chief executive Stuart Rose, who has promised shareholders his plans to revive the company will push the shares well past 400p, which was the price Green was offering.

Having received a rapturous reception yesterday from M&S's small shareholders, Rose was continuing to do the rounds of his institutional investors today.

His reception here is likely to be more muted as a number of them backed Green in his calls to see the M&S books, taking his level of support to 34% yesterday.

Major investors who supported Green included M&S's largest single shareholder, Brandes Investment Partners, with 11.7%.

Green is also thought to have won the backing of Deutsche Bank, which has emerged as a holder of an 8.3% stake in the group, following heavy share purchases in recent days. This makes it M&S's second-largest shareholder and the size of the bank's stake building in the company - it bought 88.7m shares in the past week - surprised market observers.

Legal & General, another of M&S's top 10 shareholders, with 3.5%, is also thought to have signed up to the Bhs billionaire's bid.

But a bitter Green said today he had decided to abandon his bid plans when he realised that the Marks & Spencer board would still not open up the books to him, no matter what his level of support.

'It's a disgrace,' he said, adding: 'I'm heading off on holiday with my family tomorrow. I gave it my best shot.

'It was clear they were never going to open up the books to me, despite the level of support that I had, and it was just becoming too all-consuming.'

Green, who has now failed in two takeover attempts for M&S, would not be drawn on his next move.

However, he made it clear that he is planning to give Rose a rough ride as the M&S boss implements his recovery strategy for Britain's biggest retailer.

Although he stopped short of saying that he would launch a price war against M&S, Green, who also owns Burton, Topshop, Miss Selfridge and Dorothy Perkins, said: 'They're going to have us breathing down their necks in every street, every shopping centre in the UK.'

Customers will be the 'big winners', he said, adding: 'What I am fired up about is making sure our own businesses trade their socks off.'