The owner of Argos and Homebase was yesterday said to be a potential bidder for the publisher of Glass's Guides.

According to the Daily Telegraph, GUS has asked investment bank UBS to advise it on a potential £340m bid for EurotaxGlass's.

Any purchase of the publisher, which also has an online version of Glass's Guides, would see it join GUS's financial services division, Experian, and would follow the recent acquisition of price comparison website PriceGrabber.com.

The paper said that private equity firm Lion Capital, which owns EurotaxGlass's, has asked investment bank JP Morgan to handle the sale.

But GUS is likely to come up against stiff competition for EurotaxGlass's, which has operations in 28 countries.

It does not have a significant presence in the United States and could attract interest from several US-based trade buyers, with ADP - a provider of information to the American automotive trade - tipped as a bidder.

Three weeks ago, GUS bought California-based PriceGrabber. com for £273m. The website, which enables online shoppers to compare retailers' prices, attracts 17 million users in the US and recently started an operation in the UK.