Last-minute white knight bid worth £90m from M2 Capital follows earlier offer from owner of HMV

Wilko’s administrators are facing pressure to accept a rescue deal for the ailing budget retailer after a second last-minute white knight bid worth £90m emerged from an Anglo-Canadian private equity firm.

The gardening to beauty retailer, which has 400 stores and employs almost 12,500 people, called in administrators from PricewaterhouseCoopers earlier this month after running short of cash. Shops are expected to close within weeks, with thousands of job losses unless a buyout can be secured.

Manju Malhotra, who joined retailer 25 years ago, is understood to have disagreed over pace of change

The boss of Harvey Nichols has quit the retailer she first joined 25 years ago after tensions over its strategy, and a member of its owning family will take the reins.

Manju Malhotra started at the Knightsbridge store in London in 1998 as a newly qualified accountant and worked her way up through the ranks before becoming chief executive in January 2020, just before the Covid pandemic forced stores to shut.

Household goods retailer with about 400 stores files notice of intention as it tries to secure finances

Budget retailer Wilko has said it plans to appoint administrators in a move that could put 12,000 jobs at risk.

The household and garden products retailer, which has about 400 stores, said in a notice of intention filed at the high court on Thursday that it had appointed the advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in recent months to try to find a buyer in an attempt to secure additional cash needed to keep trading.