Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Carphone Warehouse Group Plc, Europe's largest handset retailer, rose the most in more than a month in London trading on speculation the company may receive a takeover offer.

``Rumors about bid interest from Vodafone and Best Buy have been doing the rounds for some time,'' said Jimmy Yates, a London-based trader at CMC Markets.

Newbury, England-based Vodafone Group Plc is the world's largest mobile-phone company and Best Buy Co. Inc. is the largest consumer-electronics retailer. Carphone Warehouse and Richfield, Minnesota-based Best Buy, which last year bought a 3 percent stake in Carphone Warehouse, have a partnership, operating Best Buy Mobile in the U.S. and Geek Squad, Best Buy's technical services unit, in London.

Carphone Warehouse shares jumped 8.75 pence, or 2.6 percent, to 340.75 pence in London, the biggest gain since Nov. 28. Carphone Warehouse rose 9.7 percent last year.

Vodafone spokesman Simon Gordon and Carphone Warehouse spokesman Shane Conway declined to comment. Best Buy spokeswoman Susan Busch didn't return voice mail messages.

Yates and other traders said the share-price increase may also be the result of strong sales of Apple Inc.'s iPhone, a combination iPod media player and mobile phone. In the U.K., Carphone and Telefonica SA's O2 are the exclusive distributors of the iPhone.

French newspaper Les Echos said France Telecom SA's Orange wireless unit sold more than 70,000 iPhones since releasing the product in November. Orange is the exclusive provider of the iPhone in France.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Armitage in London at aarmitage@bloomberg.netSarah Thompson in London at sthompson17@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 4, 2008 11:50 EST