Carlyle launches £2bn auction for Very Group seven months after acquiring the heavily indebted UK etailer for £1
Carlyle, the US private equity firm, has kicked off a formal sale process for The Very Group, the UK's multi-brand online retailer operating under the Very and Littlewoods banners, with a price tag of approximately £2 billion. The auction launch comes just seven months after Carlyle acquired the business from the Barclay family for £1 in November 2025 — a nominal consideration that reflected the weight of debt sitting on the group's balance sheet. The Very Group's most recent interim results, covering the 39 weeks to 28 March 2026, showed retail revenue broadly flat year-on-year at £1 billion. Sports was a bright spot, growing 7.5%, but fashion slipped 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. The formal auction process follows earlier market speculation dating to January 2026. A potential competing bidder has already surfaced: Elliott Advisors, the US activist investor that owns Waterstones, was reported earlier this month to be considering a £2 billion offer. Neither Carlyle nor The Very Group has commented on the auction. No financial advisers or legal counsel have been named in the sources.
Why this matters
A £2 billion PE-run auction of a heavily indebted UK consumer brand activates multiple practice areas simultaneously: sale-side M&A advisory, leveraged finance restructuring (given the existing debt load), and potential due diligence on regulatory matters including consumer credit licensing, given Very's buy-now-pay-later and credit-instalment product offering. The gap between the £1 acquisition price and the £2 billion ask in under a year is a classic distressed-to-value play — Carlyle appears to have stabilised the business sufficiently to run a competitive process rather than a fire sale. Elliott's reported interest adds a credible competing bid and suggests the process will be genuinely contested. The consumer-facing credit dimension means any buyer will need to factor in FCA authorisation and conduct-of-business obligations, which deepens the regulatory diligence workload.
On the Ground
On this matter a trainee would manage the CP (conditions precedent) checklist as the sale process progresses, verify disclosure letter schedules against the data room, and assist with SPA (share purchase agreement) schedule drafting once a preferred bidder is identified. They would also coordinate Companies House filings following completion and assist with indexing the completion bible.
Interview prep
Question you might get
“Very Group operates a buy-now-pay-later credit product for its customers — what FCA regulatory considerations would a buyer need to address in due diligence before completing an acquisition?”
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