UBS hired to shore up Boots bid defences

STRUGGLING retailer Boots yesterday shored up its bid defences by appointing a second team of City advisers. Chief executive Richard Baker has hired big-hitting broker UBS Warburg to help shape strategy.

Observers believe the Swiss bank's first job will be to field calls from private equity firms ready to splash out £5bn on the chemist chain.

They were given a sniff of blood last week when the group issued its second profits warning in little over a month.

Boots denies it had brought UBS on board expressly to fend off bidders. It says that by employing just one broker - Merrill Lynch - it had been 'out of kilter' with the rest of the FTSE 100. 'There is no monopoly on good advice,' a Boots spokesman added.

Baker is putting its financial public relations contract out to tender. Current incumbent Tulchan will not be bidding.