Elliott Advisors is reportedly weighing a £2bn bid for The Very Group as Carlyle explores an auction of the UK e-commerce retailer
Elliott Advisors — the US investment firm that owns Waterstones — is reportedly considering a £2 billion takeover of The Very Group, the UK's multi-brand online retailer that trades under the Very and Littlewoods banners. The Very Group is currently owned by Carlyle Group, which only acquired it from the Barclay family in 2025 before moving towards an auction process in January 2026. Elliott is not alone in its interest: Chinese e-commerce platform JD.com has also been identified as a potential bidder, setting up a possible competitive process for what is one of the UK's best-known online retail assets. No advisers to either side have been named. Very's interim results covering the 39 weeks to 28 March 2026 showed retail revenue broadly flat year-on-year at £1 billion, with sports growing 7.5% but fashion declining 4.5% in what the company described as a tough market. Group retail sales including Littlewoods and Very Ireland fell 1.6% to £1.2 billion. Elliott, Carlyle, and The Very Group declined to comment. For Carlyle, the sale would represent a rapid-turnaround disposal of an asset acquired less than 18 months earlier, a sign of active portfolio management rather than a distressed situation. For Elliott, whose activist and investment strategies have historically spanned retail and media assets, full ownership of Very would give it a significant UK digital retail platform at a time when consolidation in the sector is accelerating.
Why this matters
A £2bn competitive sale process for The Very Group would activate a broad range of practice areas: private M&A (sale process structuring and SPA (share purchase agreement) negotiation), leveraged finance (acquisition financing for a bidder like Elliott), regulatory clearance (given JD.com's involvement, a cross-border competition analysis would likely be required), and employment law (workforce implications of any integration). The 'why now' is clear — Carlyle acquired the asset only in 2025 and appears to be running a structured auction, which is typical of PE-owned retail assets where operational improvements have plateaued. The JD.com dimension raises the prospect of CMA scrutiny and potentially a foreign investment screening consideration, given the UK's National Security and Investment regime, though no statutory analysis is yet warranted by the sources.
On the Ground
A trainee on the buy-side would be managing a CP (conditions precedent) checklist and coordinating disclosure letter verification against the data room, while tracking any regulatory notification deadlines. On the sell-side, trainees would be indexing due diligence reports and preparing SPA schedules as the auction process advances.
Interview prep
Soundbite
A rapid PE resale within 18 months signals active auction dynamics — competition between Elliott and JD.com could push valuations and trigger regulatory review.
Question you might get
“What regulatory approvals might a JD.com bid for The Very Group require, and which UK regimes would be most relevant?”
Full answer
Elliott Advisors is reportedly weighing a £2 billion bid for The Very Group, the Carlyle-owned UK online retailer, with JD.com also said to be interested. The commercial significance is that this is a competitive process for a major UK digital retail asset less than two years after Carlyle acquired it — suggesting the PE owner is moving quickly to crystallise value. The wider trend is one of intensifying consolidation in UK e-commerce, where scale and logistics infrastructure are increasingly decisive. JD.com's involvement also raises the prospect of foreign investment screening under the UK's NSI (National Security and Investment) regime, which would add a regulatory layer to what might otherwise be a straightforward private M&A process.
Sources
My notes
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