British supermarket group Morrisons has rejected a proposed 5.52 billion pound ($7.62 billion) cash offer from US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), saying it is far too low.
Britain’s fourth largest grocer by sales after Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda, said it received the “unsolicited, highly conditional non-binding” proposal of 230 pence a share on Monday.
The board of Bradford, northern England-based Morrisons rejected the proposal on Thursday.
“The board of Morrisons evaluated the conditional proposal together with its financial adviser, Rothschild & Co, and unanimously concluded that the conditional proposal significantly undervalued Morrisons and its future prospects,” the group said in a statement on Saturday.
Shares in Morrisons, down 5.5 per cent over the last year, closed on Friday at 182 pence, valuing the group at 4.33 billion pounds.
Morrisons said CD&R’s proposal provided for Morrisons shareholders to also still receive a final ordinary dividend of 5.11 pence per share announced on March 11.
CD&R had earlier on Saturday said it was considering a possible cash offer for Morrisons.
Under British takeover rules CD&R has until July 17 to announce a firm intention to make an offer.
CD&R’s approach underlines private equity’s growing appetite for UK supermarket assets, attracted by their cash generation and freehold assets.
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