Bid talk sends Selfridges soaring

SHARES IN Selfridges, the department store group, jumped 7 per cent yesterday on renewed speculation of a possible bid for the company. The shares rose 15.5p to 239p on suggestions that Galen Weston, the brother of the Associated British Foods chairman, Garfield Weston, was putting together a pounds 400m bid for the company.

Mr Weston owns the Brown Thomas department store in Dublin and runs the family's interests in Canada. Selfridges and the Westons' financial advisers in London refused to comment.

Shares in Selfridges, which was demerged from the Sears retail group last month, have been rising since it emerged last week that British Land had taken a 3 per cent stake.