US buyout firm denies Sainsbury’s interest
No plans to bid for UK supermarket operator
US buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts insists it has no plans to launch a bid for UK supermarket firm Sainsbury’s.
A newspaper report at the weekend said KKR would be monitoring Sainsbury’s performance under new chief executive Justin King closely, with a view to launching and bid next year if the business continues to underperform.
A source close to KKR told news agency Reuters: “They’re not interested.”
Sainsbury’s decision last month to sell its US Shaw’s operation to Albertson’s was seen in some quarters as an indication the business was paring itself back in readiness for a sale.
The report suggested the Sainsbury family, which still owns around a third of the business, would be ready to sell. Sainsbury’s has slipped from being the UK’s leading grocer in the 1980s to see first Tesco, and last year Asda, overtake it in sales terms.
