Outcome of Debenhams battle could be just Capital

THE battle for control of

Advised by retail tycoon John Lovering, the CVC and Texas consortium is believed to have secured the necessary backing of HBOS and, more importantly, the Debenhams board led by chief executive Belinda Earl. Lovering is the former Homebase chairman who was rebuffed as a bidder for supermarket group Somerfield.

If the offer turns out to be true, rival venture capitalist Permira would only have itself to blame. It has been sitting on the pot for too long. It made an indicative offer at 425p in May, but has yet to make a formal bid.

Its dithering opened the door to CVC and co. Should it still be interested in acquiring Debs, Permira would be required under Takeover Panel rules to fork out at least 10% more (or 490p a share) to win the day. That would cost it £1.77bn and is unlikely.

Other retailers basked in the glory of the largest monthly percentage rise in UK retail sales since November 2001. Economists' forecasts of a 0.3% increase were embarrassingly short, with the hottest June for 27 years helping sales soar 1.9%.

That restored hopes for a consumer-led economic revival in the second half of the year. Combined with bullish trading statements from Astra Zeneca (58p up at 2508p), Legal & General (4 1/2p dearer at 92 3/4p) and Shell ( 1/2p off at 403 1/2p), it helped the Footsie jump 63.1 points to 4149.6.

Wall Street kept up the momentum towards the close, rising 87 points as first-time US unemployment insurance claims fell to 386,000, much lower than expected and the lowest since mid February.

Sterling edged up to $1.6104, while the euro eased to 71p and $1.1440.

Helped by heavy buying on the perception that it is pulling further away from Sainsbury (5p up at 265p), supermarket giant Tesco jumped 10 1/4p to 226 3/4p on turnover of 45m.

Securicor banked a gain of 6 1/2p at 76 1/2p after its Canadian arm secured its biggest-ever cash logistics contract with Toronto-Dominion Bank. The three-year deal extends a contract to supply services such as cash in transit.

Buy-to-let mortgage expert Paragon, still drawing strength from its purchase of Britannic Money for £18.7m, advanced 13 1/2p to a record 332p.

Property company Marylebone Warwick Balfour improved 1 1/2p to 60p after closing five serviced office centres in the Netherlands and Germany, and putting four French centres into administration. That sounds like good news for Mark Dixon's Regus, 1 1/2p better at 35 3/4p. It should pick up plenty of new business.

Aim-listed Medical House hardened 1 1/2p to 46 1/2p after signing a distribution agreement with Roth Medical Components Australia for the distribution Down Under of its new needle-free delivery system for insulin.

TradingSports Exchange Systems, which supplies person-to-person betting exchange systems, raced 7p ahead to 127 1/2p. It has signed a fiveyear exclusive contract with Costa Rica International Sportsbook, one of the largest offshore bookmakers in the world.

An upbeat trading statement sparked Centurion Electronics 4 1/2p higher to 65p. Car door maker Wagon accelerated 16p to 151p after the agm heard that current trading is progressing well.

Patsystems, which provides financial software to the derivatives industry, gained 17/8p to 147/8p after a reduced interim pretax loss of £1.5m, down from £3.9m. Turnover was 35% up at £4.8m.

Dmatek jumped 9p to 51 1/2p after hearing that Elmo-Tech, its global law enforcement subsidiary, has been chosen as the supplier of electronic monitoring systems to two new regional programmes in Paris and French territories in South America, the West Indies and Africa.

THE collapse of Accident Group hit Lloyd's broker Goshawk Insurance hard. One of its syndicates was exposed to the injury claims specialist and the extent of these liabilities forced it to issue a profit warning and put itself up for sale. Its shares plummeted from 115p to a year's low of 70 1/2p. They edged up 1p to 72p yesterday on talk that a cash-rich buyer is in the wings.