Safeway has been secretly inviting offers for the 53 stores would-be bidder Morrisons was told it has to sell to comply with the competition commission, according to a report in The Guardian.
Stores were put up for sale 10 days ago. Safeway wrote to Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's and some smaller retailers seeking first offers. Any stores that have attracted competing bids will go to a second round of offers, which will have to be submitted in the coming fortnight.
A Safeway spokesman said: “Following discussions with the Office of Fair Trading and in agreement with Morrisons, we decided to invite bids for these 53 stores from interested parties.”
The store believes it can get a better price for the outlets than Morrisons could. Any sales of the 53 stores will be conditional on Morrisons successfully bidding for Safeway.
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