Sports Direct and Matlan late bidders for BHS

Retail entrepreneurs Mike Ashley, the billionaire founder of Sports Direct and John Hargreaves the founder of Matalan, the discount clothing chain was involved in last-minute rescue talks with BHS which went into administration in April 2016. The other leading bidders are Cafer Mahiroglu, who started as a rag trader in Stoke Newington, North East London was a supplier to Select Retail before he rescued the fashion chain from near collapse in 2008 and Philip Day, who owns the Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Peacocks clothing chains.