Morgan Stanley, CSFB, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch have won a hotly-contested debt refinancing mandate for Debenhams, the UK retailer, depriving four other banks, including Goldman Sachs, UBS and Deutsche Bank of the deal, sources close to the talks said.

As revealed exclusively by Financial News on Tuesday, Debenhams is preparing to strip £800m (€1.2bn) for its private equity backers, CVC Capital Partners, Texas Pacific Group and Merrill Lynch Private Equity, in a special dividend from of the £1.8bn to £2bn refinancing.