The sale of The Body Shop could be close with strong interest shown in the business but Aurelius reportedly now unlikely to buy it out of administration.

That’s according to Sky News, which has a good track record with this kind of story, and which said the administrators want to agree a sale of the fallen beauty sector star by the end of the month.

Sky said FRP Advisory has asked for indicative bids by next Tuesday (11 June) and that Aurelius, the German private equity firm that bought The Body Shop from Natura &Co a few months ago, “is not expected to submit an offer next week”.

It said M&S — which had been named as a possible bidder by The Sunday Times — is also walking away and “there was growing doubt on Friday that rival Next would bid”. 

Having heard a lot about who won’t bid, there’s little news on who might still be in the race, but the report quoted sources close to FRP saying it was “encouraged by the level of interest in The Body Shop from potential bidders”.

It would certainly be interesting to see a new name enter the fray with the ‘usual suspects’ counted out.

What they’d be buying is a business much smaller than it was just a year ago, although it’s still trades from around 100 stores in the UK and is an instantly recognisable name for beauty consumers.

The Body Shop’s businesses across much of Europe and parts of Asia had already been taken over by “a family office” before the UK insolvency. 

Neither FRP, nor M&S and Aurelius have commented on the Sky story.