Retail round up – The Weekend papers
Matalan sale may founder as bidders balk at ‘frothy’ price tag, Alliance Boots axes final salary pension scheme, Manchester United sets ball rolling in quest for new beer sponsor, PepsiCo plans $30bn push into healthy eating, John Lovering eyes DFS bid with Permira, Benetton launches search for new faces…
The Sunday Telgraph
John Hargreaves’ hopes of selling the Matalan discount fashion chain he founded for above £1.5bn look set to be dashed as bidders balk at his “frothy” price expectations.Friday’s final bid deadline will see US buy-out house TPG, Advent and possibly Warburg Pincus make offers.But the cheques being written out to snag the 205 stores are all thought to be below the reported £1.5bn price, leaving insiders worried the process might derail. Hargreaves is understood to have set a £1.2bn-£1.25bn break price for the deal – under which he could refuse to sell. Full article here.
Alliance Boots, the pharmaceutical retailer and wholesaler, is to close its gold-plated final-salary pension scheme for existing members in a move that will affect 15,000 employees.The company denied the move was a cost-cutting measure and said it had started consultation with all staff on a new defined-contribution scheme. The new scheme will be designed to provide pensions for all UK employees “on a more sustainable basis”, the company said. Alliance Boots – which was taken private by chairman Stefano Pessina and private equity group KKR in 2007 – is the latest company to switch its final-salary members to a different retirement plan.Last summer Barclays and supermarket Wm Morrison axed their final-salary pension schemes for existing members in moves affecting 27,000 staff. Full article here.
Manchester United has kicked off the search for a new beer sponsor to replace an existing deal with Budweiser, the lager brand owned by Anheuser Busch Inbev.Britain’s biggest brewers are among those that have received footballs branded with each of their own beer marques and Manchester United logos.One brewing executive who said he would “take a look” at the potential deal said the promotional packages were “circulating widely around the industry”. The search for a new sponsor comes at a difficult time for Manchester United after the football club’s owners, the Glazer family, received widespread criticism following a £500m bond issue earlier this month. The American owners have been accused of loading the company with debt and jeopardising its future. Full article here.
PepsiCo is to launch a $30bn (£19bn) push into nutritional and healthy foods after its global chief executive said she wanted to fundamentally change the mix of products the global food conglomerate produces. Indra Nooyi, the chief executive of PepsiCo, which employs nearly 200,000 people worldwide, said that she wanted the company to treble the revenue gained from its ‘good-for-you’ ranges, which include Quaker Oats, Tropicana and Naked Juice. Full article here.
The Sunday Times
John Lovering has joined forces with Permira, the European private-equity giant, to spearhead a buyout bid for DFS, the furniture group owned by Lord Kirkham. The move comes days after Lovering was installed as chairman of Mitchells & Butlers, Britain’s biggest managed pub company, following a shareholder revolt. He will step down from his role as Debenhams chairman in March.Permira and Lovering are believed to have drafted in bankers at Nomura to advise on the offer. Kirkham is considering selling a majority stake in DFS, which is valued at more than £500m. At 65, he is nearing retirement and has no obvious successor.Bankers at Goldman Sachs are believed to be advising Kirkham. Last Friday they invited first-round offers for the Yorkshire-based chain, which has benefited from the collapse of rivals, including Land of Leather and SCS. Full article here.
The Independent on Sunday
Once again, Benetton is blazing the trail; the Italian retailer announced the world’s first real-time “street-casting” last week, inviting people on the street to enter a gobal modelling competition to become one of the faces of the retailer for next year.The contest, which starts next week, will be run through social and online media and potential models are invited to send photos or videos which will then be placed on Benetton’s site to be voted on. Benetton is also experimenting with the latest in “augmented reality” technology – the adverts carry an icon that allows viewers to watch videos.
