Supermarket sweep: Morrisons taken private

Last weekend’s auction proved ‘strangely underwhelming’

Morrisons supermarket
There is ‘frenzied interest’ in the supermarket sector
(Image credit: George Wood/Getty Images)

After an intense four-month battle, “we were expecting the mother of all food fights” at last weekend’s auction for Morrisons, said Ben Marlow in The Daily Telegraph. It proved “strangely underwhelming”. Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) beat its US private-equity rival Fortress by “just 1p-a-share” – buying Britain’s fourth-largest supermarket for around £10bn (including £3bn in debt). It’s a triumph for former Tesco chief Sir Terry Leahy, who is tipped to return to a British grocer a decade on as Morrisons’ new chairman. But the outcome for other stakeholders looks less rosy. Morrisons’ debt “will more than double” just as a supply crisis is swamping the country, placing CD&R “under intense pressure” to give the supermarket “the full private-equity treatment”.

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