British department store Selfridges saw its shares lifted higher yesterday by the latest wave of bid speculation to follow its demerger from Sears last month.

A British newspaper report at the weekend suggested that billionaire businessman, Mr Galen Weston, who owns the Brown Thomas store in Dublin, was putting together a bid in excess of £400 million sterling for Selfridges.

The shares closed up 16p, or 7.2 per cent, at 239 1/2p, after touching a high of 245p.

The Sunday Telegraph article about a possible bid from Weston follows news last week that British property firm British Land had taken a 3.15 per cent stake in Selfridges.

Former parent Sears made clear it had had approaches from interested parties in the run-up to the demerger and some industry analysts had looked for a bidder to emerge soon after the company came to the market in July.