UK: Iceland wants Sainsbury’s and Asda merger sales

Frozen food chain Iceland is considering bidding for any stores Sainsbury’s and Asda are required to sell in order to obtain regulatory clearance for their proposed combination, as it seeks to expand its Food Warehouse business. Although the companies’ traditional superstores “would be too big” for Iceland to take on, “you can redevelop, you can carve up, you can put in neighboring retailers alongside,” the company’s managing director Richard Walker said.

He told the Financial Times, “Food retail drives footfall and we are the only supermarket that is opening on retail parks . . . We are looking at every retailer, trying to pick off as much as we can.”

The Competition and Markets Authority is expected to release the provisional findings of its in-depth probe into Sainsbury’s takeover of Asda shortly.