A private shareholder in Moss Bros is poised to go head-to-head with Baugur, the Icelandic investment bank, and table a rival takeover bid for the struggling menswear retailer, The Times has learnt.

Sources close to the investor, who asked not to be named, said yesterday that he was considering whether to mount an offer. He has sounded out potential allies in a possible consortium and is in talks to secure funding.

Members of the Moss and Gee families, which control a 27 per cent of the shares in the company, are understood to have been approached.

The shareholder concerned is not Laura Ashley, the home furnishing company controlled by MUI Group, of Malaysia, which holds a 5.4 per cent stake in Moss Bros.

A source said: “There is a clear feeling that for the past 18 months the management at Moss Bros have been so besotted with Baugur that they have taken their eye off the ball with regard to running the business. People in the market are valuing the management, not the assets, which we feel are worth more than Baugur is willing to pay.”

Baugur split the Moss Bros board on Monday by tabling an indicative takeover of £40 million - 42p per share - 18 months after taking a stake in the business. The Icelandic group, which owns 26 retailing chains in the UK, has been granted time to conduct due diligence on the business founded in 1851. Mark Bernstein, a Moss Bros director close to descendents of the founding Moss family, “dissented” from the decision to grant Baugur access to the books.

Baugur controls a near-29 per cent shareholding in Moss Bros through the Unity investment vehicle. Shares in Moss Bros have tumbled nearly 60percent in the past two years.

Keith Hamill, Moss Bros chairman, believes that the retailer will be able to restructure far more effectively in the private sector under Baugur's ownership. On Monday he blamed the group's problems on the consumer downturn. Shares in Moss Bros rose 0.5p to 42p yesterday.

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