Morrisons bidding war takes a twist as new US offer arrives

THE Morrisons bidding war takes a twist as US offer arrives worth £7 billion (€8 billion) but from a different investment firm.

On August 19, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice whose earlier bid for Britain’s fourth largest supermarket was rejected, announced that its newly created division, Market Bidco Limited had offered £7 billion to takeover Morrisons and that the supermarket’s board had accepted the offer.

This is now the third offer that the Board has accepted, the first two being from rival US bidders Fortress which is not necessarily out of the running.

Any offer has to be approved by the majority of the company’s shareholders and this latest offer is approximately 60 per cent up on Morrisons share closing price on June 19, 2021.

This values each share at £2.85 (€3.28) but within 24 hours of the offer being accepted by the Board, the share price in London had climbed to £2.91 (€3.35) which suggests that the market believes there is still considerable room for improvement on the offer.

Fortress in the meanwhile is advising shareholders not to take precipitate action and it seems likely that a further bid could be imminent but no decision on any bid will be made until a shareholders meeting due to take place in October.

British companies are at the moment considered by many to be undervalued and there are a number of overseas investment companies looking to snap up bargains as the UK recovers from the pandemic.

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