The Fortress Investment Group, comprised of the likes of a SoftBank subsidiary and the American billionaire Koch family, is pursuing a private equity takeover of Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc, the United Kingdom’s fourth-largest supermarket chain. Despite leading the charge, this group faces the challenge of convincing Morrison stakeholders, customers, and politicians that a private buyout is within the company’s best interests.
The supermarket chain agreed in principle to the 6.3 billion pound ($8.7 billion) takeover by Fortress, although higher offers are still on the table. This comes after Morrison Supermarkets rejected a lower bid submitted by Clayton Dubilier & Rice in June.
While Fortress may still need to convince stakeholders of its takeover bid, Chief Executive Officer Dave Potts has expressed support for this move, stating: “They are backing our management, our strategy and our people”. He furthermore added that Morrison has managed to identify the value in the Morrison business.
The planned buyout of Morrison is the latest in a series of acquisitions targeting British supermarket chains. Asda, the UK’s third largest supermarket chain, was acquired for 6.5 billion pounds earlier in the year. Fortress began speaking with Morrison in May, since which it had submitted five offers.
