UK furniture group MFI is to auction off its 200 retail premises in an effort to revive its fortunes. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein will handle the sale. Retail operations for the group have been performing badly and it has a pension deficit of £150m. Analysts predict that MFI would be keen to dispose of the shops regardless of whether the proposed sale was profitable. MFI revealed recently that it had received a number of unsolicited offers for its retail operations and Homebase, South African company Steinhoff Group and Nobia of Sweden have all been tipped to be interested.