Whats the story at Marks & Spencer?
The City is alive with rumours about Marks & Spencer again, from the vaguely believable – that the company has had a disastrous second quarter – to the wholly ridiculous – that Stuart Rose is about to launch a management buyout bid backed by his old sparring partner Philip Green. Despite the backdrop of the worst high street trading environment in 22 years, the shares have enjoyed a remarkably strong run since the early summer, so what’s the story? In the past week, at least four brokers, two of which had previously dismissed M&S as virtually a basket case, have all turned bullish, from CSFB and Deutsche to Goldman Sachs and Lehmans. All of them are of the opinion that second-quarter trading wasn’t nearly as bad as some of the gloomier predictions suggest. The range is for a year-on-year fall in like-for-like sales of between 2 and 5 per cent, which would be better than Next and many other clothing retailers. But the thing the company will be most keen to trumpet when it reports the nu
