• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

$10 billion U.S. battle for Britain’s Morrisons heads for auction

September 8, 2021 by David Barret Leave a Comment

September 8, 2021

By James Davey

LONDON (Reuters) -The $10 billion takeover battle for British supermarket group Morrisons between two U.S. private equity groups looks set to be decided by a rarely used auction process.

Morrisons said on Wednesday it was in talks with Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), Fortress Investment Group and Britain’s takeover regulator about an auction to settle its future.

Last month, Morrisons agreed a 7 billion pound ($9.6 billion) offer from CD&R, which has former Tesco boss Terry Leahy as a senior adviser. However, the rival consortium led by Softbank-owned Fortress could still trump that bid.

The fight for Britain’s fourth-largest grocer after Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda, is the most high-profile looming takeover amid a raft of bids and counter bids, reflecting private equity’s appetite for UK Plc.

Morrisons said that as neither bidder had declared its offer final, it was talking to both of them and the Takeover Panel, which governs M&A deals in the UK, about “an orderly framework for the resolution of this competitive situation” – which would typically be an auction.

Morrisons said shareholder meetings to vote on the CD&R offer would be convened for around the week starting Oct. 18.

It said any auction would take place prior to these shareholder meetings, on a date announced by the Takeover Panel.

Following completion of an auction, Morrisons shareholders would vote on either a Fortress or a CD&R offer, depending on which offer Morrisons’ board recommended.

Morrisons said it expected a scheme document on CD&R’s offer to be posted to shareholders around Sept. 25.

CD&R’s latest offer is worth 285 pence per Morrisons share – a 60% premium to Morrisons’ share price before takeover interest emerged in mid-June.

Fortress, whose last offer was pitched at 272 pence a share, said on Wednesday it “continues to consider its options.”

Morrisons shares were trading at 291.3 pence at 1044 GMT, indicating investors are hoping for a higher bid.

CD&R had no further comment.

AUCTION PROCESS

The Takeover Panel’s standard auction structure is bidding over a five-day period. However, if all parties are in agreement a different structure can be used – for example bidding over just one day.

Last month, the Takeover Panel set up an auction of British inhaler company Vectura for suitors Philip Morris International <PM.N> and U.S. private equity firm Carlyle. However, in the event Carlyle decided not to raise its offer.

Morrisons, which trades from 497 stores and has a staff of over 110,000, reiterated on Wednesday that in addition to the financial terms of any offer it places “very significant emphasis on the wider responsibilities of ownership”, including the importance of employees, customers, pension trustees and suppliers.

Last month, the trustees of Morrisons’ pension schemes warned a takeover by either CD&R or Fortress could “materially weaken” the security of the schemes if no additional protection was agreed.

Morrisons is due to publish first half results on Thursday.

($1 = 0.7266 pounds)

(Reporting by James DaveyEditing by Guy Faulconbridge, Mark Potter and Jane Merriman)

Source Link $10 billion U.S. battle for Britain’s Morrisons heads for auction

David Barret
David Barret

Related posts:

  1. UK card spending slips to 93% of pre-COVID level – ONS
  2. Your next smartwatch could come with not one, but two cameras on board
  3. GM to cut North American production, citing chip shortage
  4. Fujifilm confirms it’s working on high-resolution mirrorless cameras

Filed Under: News

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • If Birds Are Dinosaurs, Why Are None As Big As T. Rexes?
  • Psychologists Demonstrate Illusion That Could Be Screwing Up Our Perception Of Time
  • Why Are So Many Enormous Roman Shoes Being Discovered At Hadrian’s Wall?
  • Scientists Think They’ve Pinpointed Structural Differences In Psychopaths’ Brains
  • We’ve Found Our Third-Ever Interstellar Visitor, Orcas Filmed Kissing (With Tongues) In The Wild, And Much More This Week
  • The “Eyes Of Clavius” Will Be Visible On The Moon Today, Thanks To Clair-Obscur Effect
  • Shockingly High Microplastic Levels Found On Remote Mediterranean Coral Reef Island
  • Interstellar Object, Cheesy Nightmares, And Smooching Orcas
  • World’s Largest Martian Meteorite Up For Auction Could Reach Whopping $2-4 Million
  • Kimalu The Beluga Whale Undergoes Pioneering Surgery And Becomes First Beluga To Survive General Aesthetic
  • The 1986 Soviet Space Mission That’s Never Been Repeated: Mir To Salyut And Back Again
  • Grisly Incident In Yellowstone National Park Shows Just How Dangerous This Vibrant Wilderness Can Be
  • Out Of All Greenhouse Gas Emitters On Earth, One US Organization Takes The Biscuit
  • Overly Ambitious Adder Attempts To Eat Hare 10 Times Its Mass In Gnarly Video
  • How Fast Does A Spacecraft Need To Go To Escape The Solar System?
  • President Trump’s Cuts To USAID Could Result In A “Staggering” 14 Million Avoidable Deaths By 2030
  • Dzo: Hybrids Beasts That Are Perfectly Crafted For Life On Earth’s Highest Mountains
  • “Rarest Event Ever” Had A Half-Life 1 Trillion Times Longer Than The Age Of The Universe – How Did We See It?
  • Meet The Bille, A Self-Righting Tetrahedron That Nobody Was Sure Could Exist
  • Neurogenesis Confirmed: Adult Brains Really Do Make New Hippocampal Neurons
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version