Online retailer Very Group scraps auction as bidders fail to hit £2bn asking price

An auction of Very Group, one of Britain's biggest online retailers, is close to being scrapped after potential bidders including the Chinese behemoth JD.com refused to meet the £2bn asking price.

Sky News has learnt that a sale process, which was tentatively launched earlier this year, is unlikely to proceed.

The decision to abort the auction will leave Carlyle, the American private equity firm, as Very Group's owner for the foreseeable future.

Sources said that running a sale process had been a condition of the change of control which saw the online retail group come under Carlyle's ownership following a financial restructuring.

Alongside the Telegraph newspapers and London's Ritz hotel, it had previously been part of the Barclay family's business empire.

The sources said, however, that the obligation to launch an auction did not require Carlyle to sell at any price, with £2bn understood to have been set as the minimum price it would accept.

JD.com is said to have been serious about an offer for Very Group, which sells a wide range of fashion, toys and electrical goods and boasts about 4.4 million customers.

The Chinese group is, however, facing regulatory scrutiny in Europe over its offer for Ceconomy, a German electronics retailer.

A person close to the situation said JD.com had become reluctant to take on another transaction until the Ceconomy transaction had been concluded.

Growing political scrutiny of JD.com's UK expansion - including the launch of its Joybuy platform - had become another complicating factor, the person said.

Very Group also drew preliminary interest from a number of private equity firms and other financial investors including Elliott Advisors.

The company is chaired by Nadhim Zahawi, the former Conservative chancellor and now a Reform member.

It competes with rivals including Argos, which is in the process of being sold by Sainsbury's to a consortium of retail executives.

The proposal to launch an "immediate" sale process was disclosed in a filing earlier this year at Companies House by administrators to VGL Holdco, a corporate entity which now has no connection to Very's operations.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was appointed to oversee the insolvency of VGL Holdco last November, enabling Carlyle - a long-standing creditor - to take control for the token sum of £1.

Sources close to Very Group described it as "a strong, high-quality business [with a] highly resilient trading performance, improved profitability and continued strength with its integrated retail and financial services model, despite ongoing challenges in the market".

It recently achieved a record margin for the third quarter and full-year pre-exceptional earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation are expected to be in the range of £310m-£320m.

In the UK, its strongest retail categories in recent months have been home, sports, toys and beauty, according to company figures, while revenue from its Very Finance consumer credit operation has also grown robustly.

Very, which boasts annual revenue of more than £2bn, was owned for more than 20 years by the Barclay family, with the business known as Littlewoods when it changed hands in 2002 in a £750m deal.

IMI, the Abu Dhabi-based media group which was involved in protracted efforts to take control of The Daily Telegraph from the Barclay family, is also a lender to Very.

Previously known as Shop Direct, Very Group employs thousands of people, and sells general merchandise under the Very and Littlewoods brands.

A spokesman for Very Group declined to comment on the sale process.

(c) Sky News 2026: Online retailer Very Group scraps auction as bidders fail to hit £2bn asking price