Ratner Launches Bid for Signet's 480 UK Stores

(IDEX Online) - Gerald Ratner has formally launched a bid to buy back the UK brands owned by Signet - formerly Ratners, the company he founded in 1984.

His famous PR gaffe in 1991 - describing his own products as "total cr*p" - wiped $500m off the value of Ratners Group and led to his departure. Ratners was rebranded as Signet in 1993.

Ratner, aged 76, has now launched a bid to acquire H. Samuel and Ernest Jones, Signet Jewelers' loss-making UK brands, and to become chairman, with financial backing from a consortium of British investors.

He has contacted Signet's CEO via a New York bank to express interest, claiming the US owners mismanage the UK operations by closing stores and underinvesting.

H. Samuel currently has over 300 stores and Ernest Jones has over 180, according to the Signet website.

Under the UK Takeover Code, bidders announce their intentions only after ensuring full cash financing and conducting due diligence to implement the offer.

Ratner told the Daily Telegraph: "They (Signet) are doing so badly in the UK, they're closing shops all the time and last year they sold their best shops.

"So we took the view that they're not really interested in the UK. We approached them thinking that it's in the interests of shareholders to just get rid of it."

Signet insisted it was "not engaged in discussions related to a sale of our UK brands".

Ratner's fall from grace came after his comments at an Institute of Directors conference in London. He said: "People say: 'How can you sell this for such a low price?' I say: 'because it's total cr*p'."

In the same speech he observed that a pair of Ratners' earrings was "cheaper than a prawn sandwich from Marks & Spencer, but I have to say the sandwich will probably last longer than the earrings".

Pic shows an H Samuel store in the UK.