Johannesburg — FURNITURE retailers Lewis and JD Group are at loggerheads after Lewis claimed JD had insulted the quality of Lewis' debtors' book, and now Lewis wants an apology.

Lewis had apparently sent e-mails to several retail analysts saying its rival JD Group had "paraded" a confidential credit bureau report at its results presentation on November 5 that not only identified the company, but also showed its debtors' book in a bad light.

The e-mail, from CEO Alan Smart, alleged that JD made "derogatory statements regarding the accuracy of Lewis provisioning and write-off policies".

As a consequence, said Lewis, the company was "reviewing its legal rights in terms of the defamatory impact arising from the use of confidential and incorrect information".

The retail group has requested that JD retract its statements. But JD said it was not clear as to what it had done wrong. CEO Mias Strauss said "you can't comment on something when you don't know what you said".

Strauss said that statistical information on five or six of its competitors -- gathered from the Transunion credit bureau -- had been shown to shareholders when it presented its results.

But JD did not say which numbers belonged to what company, he said. "I don't know what they'll sue us about."

Smart said the matter was in the hands of the company's lawyers and he could not comment further.

However, the company had released an announcement to show the healthy state of its debtors' books.

The announcement showed that 76% of its customers were "category one" and were either fully up to date, or had paid back at least 70% of their debt.

Only about 12% of the book was attributable to customers who had paid less than 55% of what they owed over the period of the loan.

Smart said that while there was a slight shift in the quality of the book, it was not material and there was no need for "panic stations". However, Smart's e-mail alleged that this was not the picture JD had presented to investors. JD had allegedly shown only the debtors' book for hire-purchase or credit agreement loans, a minimal portion of the book, which made the presentation "grossly inaccurate".

Earlier this month, Lewis said its debtors' book, for the half year to September, was in good condition and although the book had grown 16% year on year its debt provision of R419m was only a 5,8% increase on the previous corresponding period's R396m.

However, a week earlier, JD Group had blamed slowing sales and a 65% rise in debtors' costs -- from R528m to R869m -- for a poor bottom-line performance, with attributable profit down 26% to R1bn from R1,5bn in the year to August.

One analyst questioned, however, why Lewis' "sky high" credit agreement book should look any different to the rest of the company's debtors' book, especially if hire purchase earned a lower interest rate, implying a better-risk customer.

In August, African Bank said it had offered R9,85bn for the other furniture retailer, Ellerine Holdings. Once African Bank's purchase of Ellerine Holdings is complete and the company is delisted later this year, Lewis and JD will be the only furniture retailers left on the JSE.