M&S: top manager could quit

AS Marks & Spencer investors awaited Philip Green's next move, the stores group today looked set to see one of its top managers walk out after a rift with new chief executive Stuart Rose.

Marketing director Alice Avis is said to have vehemently opposed Rose's clearout of the top management team at M&S.

Under the shake-up - one of his key moves to bolster the group's defences - she has been forced to report to one of Rose's signings, Steven Sharp.

Last week, Sharp was appointed to the group's executive committee in charge of marketing, store development and design.

Meanwhile, Rose is pressing on with plans to appoint property adviser DTZ Debenham Tie Leung to revalue the group's property portfolio. Although on the books at £2.1bn, some estimate the figure closer to £4bn.

He also won support today from independent research that showed M&S generates double the amount of sales per square foot in womenswear than Green's Bhs.

City bookies have lengthened the odds on Green winning the battle. Having been 3/1 on, Cantor Index now goes evens.

Green is said to be prepared to pay no more than 400p a share. His first mooted offer, made up of cash and equity, values the group at £7bn, or 332p a share.

Although investors piled into M&S shares on Friday in the hope of a sweetened offer, it emerged today that its biggest shareholder, Brandes of the US, sold stock worth about $90,000 (£50,000).

Today the shares slipped 5 1/4p to 360 1/4p.

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