An auction of the retail empire formerly owned by the Barclay family is set to be shelved after bidders failed to meet the £2bn asking price.
Very Group, the online retailer that also owns the Littlewoods brand, was bought by US private equity firm Carlyle for a nominal £1 sum last year and subsequently put up for sale .
But plans to sell the company now appear to be in jeopardy after none of the potential suitors, which included Chinese online giant JD.com, came up with offers large enough to meet Carlyle's demands, Sky News reported.
Carlyle, which had been Very's main creditor, seized control of Very in November following the collapse of the Barclay empire amid a dispute with Lloyds Banking Group about unpaid debts.
In addition to JD.com, possible bidders are said to have included investment firm Elliott, which owns Waterstones, and plus-size online retailer N Brown, which owns the Jacamo and Simply Be brands.
Should Carlyle decide to scrap the sale, it would be left owning the struggling retailer indefinitely.
The Barclay family had owned Very Group for more than two decades as part of a sprawling business empire which once included The Telegraph and London's Ritz hotel.
Liverpool-based Very Group was created in 2005 through the merger of Littlewoods and Shop Direct.
But the company, which has more than four million customers and delivers more than 40 million items annually, has fallen on hard times in recent years.
Very's latest full accounts show it made a pre-tax loss of more than £500m on sales of around £2.1bn in the last financial year.
But the most recent trading update for the 39 weeks to March 28 revealed a more upbeat picture with operating profit before exceptional items steady at £173.5m, amid a return to top-line growth.
The group said revenue for the year to date was up 0.3pc to £1.6bn despite "ongoing challenges in the market". Full-year profits are expected to reach between £310m and £320m.
Carlyle pumped £150m into Very Group earlier this year to help keep it afloat and is seeking to recover that and its earlier loans alongside fellow creditor International Media Investments, the Abu Dhabi media vehicle that backed a failed bid to buy The Telegraph from the Barclay family.
The Barclay family launched an aborted effort to sell Very last year before ultimately ceding control to Carlyle , marking the end of their involvement in the company after two decades.
Sources close to Very Group described it as "a strong, high-quality business [with a] highly resilient trading performance, improved profitability and continued strength with its integrated retail and financial services model, despite ongoing challenges in the market".
Very Group declined to comment.
