Tesco has struck a deal with Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia to bring some of its brands into supermarkets to fill excess space (The Financial Times) (The Telegraph). Dorothy Perkins, Burtons and Evans will go into five of Tesco’s biggest stores, joined by other third-party outlets, including Claire’s Accessories and Sock Shop. “We’re always looking at new ways our stores can best serve the needs of local customers,” a Tesco spokesman said.
“Is brewery mega-deal going flat?,” asks The Daily Mail after AB InBev asked for more time in the takeover deal for SAB. The story is light on details of why the Budweiser owner is extending the ‘put up or shut up’ deadline. The delay was not a sign that the deal was at risk, people close to both companies told The Financial Times. The amount of work involved in finalising due diligence and assembling a massive debt package to finance the proposal was reported to be taking longer than expected. In a separate story this morning, The FT reports that AB InBev has hired bankers to explore a sale of US assets to win over regulators. Lead adviser Lazard and Barclays have been appointed to sell SAB’s 58% stake in a joint venture with Molson Coors, which could fetch as much as $10bn, according to people briefed on the matter.
The Telegraph finds space to fit in the Walgreens Boots Alliance acquisition of US rival Rite Aid in a $17.2bn (£11.2bn) takeover. It will create one of the largest pharmaceutical groups in the world.
More than 2,000 Morrisons staff, former and present, are to sue the supermarket group in a class action after their personal and financial information was leaked online (The Times). The test case has been billed as Britain’s “biggest claim for breach of data security”.
Finally, The Daily Mail has a comment piece saying that Majestic Wine has “woken up” to the fact that the now-scrapped six-bottle policy has always put off a lot of customers. “It’s like making people buy cigarettes in minimums of 10, beers only in fours or sixes and bacon rashers in packs of eight like at my local Tesco - ridiculous. But the business, says new boss Rowan Gormley, is moving away from the supermarket model,” the paper said. “Maybe it’s a sign that the wine business is finally waking up to the idea you need to respect all your potential customers to survive. A lot of people have stories of being humiliated in wine stores over the years.”
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