Ratner returns - on the web

FORMER High Street jewellery tycoon Gerald Ratner is making a comeback. He is launching an internet business selling jewellery and watches and aims to float on the stock market. Ratner said: 'I always wanted to get back into the business - now I have found the right vehicle.'

Ratners-Online is listing on the junior Ofex market through the reverse takeover of a shell, DPA Investments, before graduating to the Alternative Investment Market. Fund raisers Matrix Securities are this week publishing a prospectus which will show that Ratner is seeking around £4m.

It is expected that some prominent investors who followed the rise, and eventual fall, of his original Ratners chain will back the new venture.

Ratner will sell a range of jewellery and branded watches priced £40 to £300 which will undercut High Street prices. He said: 'Internet shopping has been the fastest-growing area of the retail sector in the last four years. The market for jewellery, watches and fashion accessories is forecast to reach £3.4bn by 2003.'

Ratner has attracted some heavyweight backing for his new company. Goldsmiths, the 160 strong jewellery chain, will provide warehouse and dispatching support, and also operate service returns for customers who bought online and want to exchange their goods.

Ratner is buying two existing websites from Goldsmiths, Frogz and VAT Free Jewellery, which will be incorporated into his own site. He aims to be trading by September to capture the Christmas market.

Goldsmiths' chairman Jerzy Piasecki joins the board along with another well-known retailer, Theo Paphitis, chairman of Rymans, Contessa Lingerie and La Senza Lingerie. Day-to-day running of the business will be in the hands of Gary O'Brien, a long-time colleague and business partner who served as finance director of Ratners.

Ratner, now 52, left the business empire he built up from scratch, following an unguarded moment when he criticised some of his firm's products. He recently developed and sold a health centre in the Thames Valley.