The papers continued to focus on the surprise £5.5bn approach from CD&R for Morrisons this morning.
Shares in Morrisons jumped by almost a third on Monday after the supermarket rejected a £5.5bn bid from a US private equity firm (The Telegraph).
Shares in Wm Morrison surged 30% to 232p in early trading on Monday following an approach for the UK supermarket chain from US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (The Financial Times £).
The FTSE 250 group dismissed the approach from Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, but shareholders expect the buyout firm to return with a higher offer (The Times £).
Investor demand was spurred by news over the weekend that Morrisons, which employs about 120,000 people in the UK, had become a takeover target, making the Bradford-based chain the top FTSE 250 riser on Monday morning, the first opportunity to trade shares after the approach was made public (The Guardian).
The UK’s largest asset manager has blasted the bid for Morrisons by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, warning the private equity house “would not be adding any genuine value” to the supermarket with its purchase (The Financial Times £).
Legal & General Investment Management, the seventh-largest shareholder in Morrisons, raised concerns about the price of the bid from Clayton, Dubilier & Rice as well as the possibility that the suitor could try to sell its shops to generate cash (The Guardian).
MPs are preparing to intervene in a potential takeover of Morrisons as investors brace for a feeding frenzy after the supermarket rejected a £5.5bn offer from private equity (The Telegraph). Members of Business committee understood to be seeking assurances from Clayton Dubilier & Rice over potential bid for supermarket.
Following a £5.5bn bid for Morrisons, the private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice is lining up Sir Terry Leahy as chairman should its advances prove successful (The Mail).
Supermarkets were all the rage yesterday on stock markets, as Clayton, Dubilier & Rice’s £5.5bn bid for Morrisons brought the rest of the sector into play and delivered strong gains for Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Ocado, according to a market report in The Times (£).
Shares in listed supermarkets rocketed yesterday as investors geared up for a bidding war over Morrisons (The Mail).
The Guardian looks at why cash-rich private equity firms scent bargains in the UK.
The Morrisons takeover bid should ring alarm bells in Westminster, says The Telegraph’s chief City commentator.
An analysis in The Times (£) says ‘Morrisons is hot property with a bid on the table’.
After receiving overwhelmingly negative comments from readers about CD&R’s approach for Morrisons, The Times (£) says private equity is an easy target but asks if it is a deserving one?
Nils Pratley in The Guardian says Morrisons “shouldn’t capitulate in another depressing takeover saga”.
Alex Brummer in The Mail warns a PE takeover of Morrisons would threaten the nation’s food security.
The Lex column in The Financial Times (£) opines that Morrisons shareholders should not accept a cut-price deal. “CD&R’s bid underprices its vision for the supermarket group, which owns most of its stores,” it writes.
Confectionery firm Hotel Chocolat has agreed to buy a beauty products firm it partially owns for £1 less than the cheapest box of chocolates its website sells (The Mail).
Selfridges has launched garden centres at its stores in London, Manchester and Birmingham, capitalising on the gardening boom that accelerated during the pandemic (The Guardian).
European Union sausage laws are just the tip of the iceberg in post-Brexit Northern Ireland, which still follows almost 300 Single Market rules covering everything from sardine marketing to fireworks and bull semen (The Telegraph).
Thousands of new warehouses will be needed across the UK and Europe because of the online shopping boom since the pandemic, according to real estate group CBRE (The Financial Times £).
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