Britain’s Morrisons agrees to CD&R’s $9.54 billion takeover offer

British supermarket Morrisons has agreed a takeover offer worth 7.0 billion pounds ($9.54 billion) from US private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), dropping its recommendation of a lower bid from a consortium led by Fortress Investment Group.

Morrisons, which started out as an egg and butter merchant in 1899, said CD&R’s offer is worth 285 pence a share, trumping a 272 pence a share offer, worth 6.7 billion pounds, from the consortium led by Softbank-owned Fortress.

CD&R’s offer gives the supermarket chain an enterprise value of 9.7 billion pounds once debt is included. Morrisons’ board intends to recommend it unanimously.

The battle 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.

CD&R’s agreed bid represents a 60% premium to Morrisons’ share price before takeover interest emerged in mid-June.

Morrisons’ shares closed on Thursday at 279.2 pence, indicating investors expected a higher offer.

CD&R, which has former Tesco boss Terry Leahy as a senior adviser, had a 5.52 billion pounds proposal rejected by Morrisons on June 17.

Morrisons subsequently recommended a bid from Fortress worth 6.3 billion pounds, which was then raised after major shareholders, including Silchester, M&G and Hambro, indicated they wanted more.

CD&R has committed to retain Morrisons’ existing management team led by CEO David Potts, and execute its strategy. It said material store sale and leaseback transactions are not planned.

TESCO OLD BOYS “The Morrisons board believes that the offer from CD&R represents good value for shareholders while at the same time protecting the fundamental character of Morrisons for all stakeholders,” said Chairman Andrew Higginson.

Potts, Higginson and Morrisons’ chief operating officer Trevor Strain all worked with Leahy at Tesco.

Leahy said: “CD&R is delighted to have the opportunity to support the management of Morrisons in executing their strategy to grow and develop the business.” CD&R’s current investments include Motor Fuel Group (MFG), which operates 918 fuel forecourts in the UK.

With Morrisons owning 339 fuel forecourts, CD&R is targeting a partnership to develop Morrisons’ wholesale business and convenience store portfolio.

However, the forecourt overlap will likely face scrutiny from Britain’s competition regulator.

Morrisons shareholders will vote on CD&R’s offer at meetings expected around the week starting Oct. 4.

Under British takeover rules, Fortress could still come back with a higher offer.

Fortress said it was “considering its options” and urged shareholders to take no action.

Analysts have speculated that Amazon, which has a partnership deal with Morrisons, could still enter the fray, though most believe if it was interested it would have done so by now.

UK retail sales drop: British retail sales unexpectedly fell in July, official data showed on Friday, suggesting at least some consumers skipped shopping to follow England’s run in the Euro 2020 soccer tournament, or stayed at home due to rising COVID-19 cases.

Retailers reported that the tournament - in which England reached the final - and bad weather kept shoppers away from stores, the Office for National Statistics said.

Sales volumes fell by 2.5% from June, the biggest drop since January when Britain returned to lockdown. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a 0.4% month-on-month rise.

An ONS official said there had been no feedback from retailers that worries about rising coronavirus cases were behind the drop in sales.

But analysts said the size of the fall probably reflected the impact of the fast-spreading Delta variant and the requirement for hundreds of thousands of people to isolate after being “pinged” by a government tracing app.

The ONS said food store sales were down by 1.5%, reflecting a jump in June and the opening of more hospitality venues. Non-food stores reported a fall of 4.4%, though sales remained 5.8% above their pre-pandemic levels in February 2020.

In a possible sign of renewed caution among shoppers, or July’s bad weather, online sales rose to 27.9% of total spending after hitting a pandemic low in June.

Earlier this month, Barclaycard said its data for July showed a jump in entertainment spending as people returned to cinemas, theatres and sports events. Britain’s economy has recovered most of its nearly 10% slump in 2020 when the country suffered one of the world’s heaviest coronavirus death tolls and stayed locked down for longer than many other European nations.