THE boss of flooring company Carpetright, which acquired North-East rival Storey Carpets earlier this year, was yesterday said to be considering buying the company.

Shares rose on the back of speculation that Carpetright founder Lord Harris of Peckham had teamed up with lender HBoS for a possible joint privatisation bid.

From a day's opening price of 1115p a share, the price reached a day's high of 1153p, before closing up 5p at 1120p

Carpetright, which bought Sunderland-based Storey and its 52 stores for £20m in May, confirmed last month that Lord Harris, its chief executive and chairman, was considering taking the company private.

An independent committee was formed to consider the request, with Deutsche Bank appointed as advisors.

It was claimed that Lord Harris had suggested the idea of a possible joint bid with HBoS, together with Saudi investment firm Olayan Group, last summer, but decided against an offer when the share price rose to a year's high of nearly 1350p.

It is not known whether Olayan is party to any present talks.

Carpetright has seen a fall in sales since the start of the year, saying last month that recent interest rate rises were having a significant adverse impact.

The company reported pre-tax profits up 4.4 per cent to £67m in the year to April 28, but like- for-like sales in its core market of UK and Ireland fell by 1.4 per cent.

In April, the group warned that post-Easter trading had been worse than expected, with sales down 5.2 per cent in the ten weeks to April 12.

Lord Harris, who owns a 23.4 per cent stake in the firm, and Carpetright declined to comment on the speculation yesterday.