CURRENT ACCOUNT: It's only a few years that Musgrave chairman Hugh Mackeown stood up at a Checkout conference and ceremoniously discarded a Warburg report on Irish retailing that had the temerity to suggest that the Cork firm was a prime target to go public.

And since then, while Musgrave has operated as a plc in every way bar having a stock market, the gospel from the Musgrave family (a few hundred of the extended clan own 70 per cent of the company) is that the company doesn't need a stock market listing and the extra scrutiny from outside shareholders that being a plc would bring.

But the tilt at Budgens surely shortens the odds on Musgrave going public, not least because of the debt that a successful bid for the British retailer would mean to the group's balance sheet.

Last year's results are not yet available but at the end of 2000, Musgrave had net debt of €230 million, admittedly comfortably covered more than five times by operating profits.

Taking out the remaining Budgens shares could cost Musgrave some €275 million in cash.

Even a cash-flow generator like Musgrave might find that amount of debt a bit uncomfortable.