Charming Courtship

Charming Shoppes, the Bensalem, Pa., women's apparel retailer that operates Catherine's Plus Sizes stores, is said to be the leading bidder for The Limited's Lane Bryant plus-size apparel stores. The bidding is rumored to be between $300 and $350 million.

Limited (Columbus, Ohio) put the chain up for sale about four months ago because, it said, it had invested as much as it wanted in the business and now chose to focus on its other apparel units (which include Limited stores, Express, Lerner New York, Structure and Henri Bendel). Lane Bryant has about 650 stores and is said to be one of the more profitable divisions at The Limited, posting revenues of $930.4 million in 2000 (an increase of about 1 percent over 1999).

While Charming Shoppes is said to be the front-runner at this time, numerous other bidders are said to include Texas Pacific Group (Ft. Worth, Texas), Freeman Spogli & Co. (Los Angeles), United Retail Group Inc. (Rochelle Park, N.J.) and Brylane Inc. (New York).

Charming Shoppes operates some 1800 stores under the Fashion Bug, Catherine's Plus Sizes and Added Dimensions names.