Stock in Marks & Spencer (M&S) on Monday surged on reports that Qatar's sovereign wealth fund is preparing to place a takeover bid for the British clothing retailer.

The stock hit a high of 407.7p a share before closing at 398.1p a share on Monday, up 25.6p from the previous close. The 6.9 per cent gain added more than £400 million to the market value of the retailer.

The stock gained on a report published by The Sunday Times newspaper that the Qatar Investment Authority had plans to assemble a consortium to place £8 billion takeover bid for the UK's biggest clothing retailer.

Having unveiled the three-year blueprint for the retailer, Marc Bolland is said to have outlined a plan to steer Marks & Spencer out of the path of the big supermarket groups yesterday.

Marc Bolland has taken over as the Chief Executive in May. He is said to have delivered his vision for the restoring of the M&S to greatness in rigorous detail, focusing on improving the core British business.

Marks and Spencer (M&S) is set to embark on a long-awaited strategic review, which will target increased internet revenues, reduced sales of branded goods and almost doubled international sales over the next four years growth.

Mr. Bolland, the company's new Chief Executive, stressed that the plan is "evolution and not revolution"; although the targets are ambitious they do not imply a radical reshaping of the M&S brand. The strategic review will kick off with a greater focus on M&S' own products, under the banner `Only at M&S'.

According to the latest market research, sales of pies have jumped by 5% to £941 million.

Marks & Spencer declared that their pie sales have touched 16.2 million in last year counting to 44,383 pies daily.

Pies seem to be the most popular comfort food among Britishers during recession eras.

Vivianne Ihekweazu, food and drink analyst at Mintel said, "Today, more and more are buying pies and pasties. They are proving particularly appealing to those on a limited budget".

It’s been almost a decade that Bridgepoint has been wooing the longtime Chairman of Marks & Spencer, Sir Stuart Rose. And it looks like the time has come for Sir Stuart to move on and take up to private equity.

Recently, there have been several high-profile appointments, some of them being the former Procter & Gamble Chief Executive Alan Lafley joining the Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in April and the former Chief Executive of Standard Chartered Bank and the ex-Trade Minister, Lord Davies joining the Corsair Capital, the US buy-out firm.

The retail giant seems to have been in talks with Robert Swannell regarding the striking of an accord, according to which the experienced investment banker will be offered a pay package of around £500,000.

The existing Chairperson of the retail house, Sir Stuart, takes home £875,000 each year and his remuneration has been a topic of controversy for a lot of years amongst investors.

M&S did not come forward to offer any comment about its potential new chairperson however it could make an announcement regarding the same in this week.

Britain's biggest clothing retailer Marks & Spencer has plans to appoint two new directors to enhance overseas and online sales.

Under the guidance of chief executive Marc Bolland, who arrived from Morrisons in May, the search for the new directors has already been started.

The multi-channel division director will sit beside the retail chief, Steve Rowe, who shoulders the responsibility of retailer’s 700 stores.

The home ware and food retailer Marks and Spencer Group U. K. clothing, expressed on Tuesday that it has hired Alan Stewart as its chief financial officer.

Stewart, who is at the moment, is working as CFO at aircraft leasing company AWAS, shall commence at the retailer by the end of October. Formerly, he was designated as the finance director at stationery, book and newspaper group WHSmith.

Stewart shall swap Ian Dyson, who shall be joining U. K. pub firm Punch Taverns as chief executive.

Marks & Spencer yesterday announced that it is in plans to shut down its store in Nuneaton, prompted by plunging sales and profit figures.

In addition, the Company announced to close three other stores in the UK, as well.

The store that bears its long standing ties with Nuneaton, will witness sacking of 45 staff members if M&S remained firm on its decision of closing the store.

However, a delegation meeting including M&S senior Managers is reported to take place in a bid to make Marks and Spencer alter its plans and stay in town.

The British retailer Marks & Spencer bagged the espousal for its executive pay sketch at its yearly shareholder summit, in spite of the grievance over the 15 million pound wrap up rewarded to new CEO Marc Bolland.

Britain's major clothing retailer Marks & Spencer, which also vends home wares and groceries, expressed on Wednesday that its compensation report was certified by 91.4 percent of voting investors, with 8.6 percent contrasting.

These numbers prohibits the number of suspended votes that was not right away obtainable.

It has been reported that the British retailer, Marks and Spencer’s sales rose to 3.6%, despite the downturn in the economy.

Marks and Spencer is the biggest retail store in UK and the items ranging from daily needs to vegetables to clothes to other accessories are all provided under one roof.

The sales rose to 5.1% during the last quarter of this year and there was also a 1% rise in the sales, during the third quarter of 2009.

Marks and Spencer also has its official website, through which home ware, clothes, furniture and other items can be purchased.

Shareholders of Marks & Spencer showed distress over the company’s excessive pay outs to its executives. The voice was raised by investors at M&S’ annual general meeting later this month, where two investor groups issued warnings to the firm.

A report by Manifest, a proxy voting agency brought out that the new chief executive Mark Bolland was paid a pay reward of £15.1 million, which is indeed a high amount and the company is also offering incomparable bonus payouts on the name of its performance plans.

High street retailer Marks & Spencer is going to broaden its ethical and environmental commitments to become the world’s most sustainable retailer by 2015.

M&S has announced 80 new commitments under its 'Plan A' eco programme and said it would start implementing them within the coming five years.

The company said it would convert 50 per cent of its food, cloths and home items to ‘Plan A’, which was launched in 2007 and included 100 commitments in areas such as climate change and sustainable raw material.

The new chief of Marks & Spencer, Marc Bolland has surprised everyone by stepping down as Chief Executive of Morrisons, the supermarket chain, about 2 months earlier than what was being anticipated.

Marc Bolland, the would-be chief executive of Marks & Spencer, stepped down from his present role at Wm Morrison nearly two months earlier than expected.

As per many Morrison thought that Marc Bolland should not remain at the helm as he is moving to a major rival.

Earlier Morrison had said that Mr. Bolland would stay on until the end of January, but yesterday the grocer announced that Mr. Bolland had left it with immediate effect.

Morrison’s management is focusing on planning budget and strategy for the next year.