KKR Planning Asda Bid as Sainsbury's Deal Faces Hurdle: Times

(Bloomberg) -- KKR & Co. is planning a bid for Walmart Inc.’s Asda as the U.K. supermarket chain’s $9.5 billion takeover by rival J Sainsbury Plc edges close to collapse, the Sunday Times reports.

The U.S. buyout firm is thought to be working with Tony De Nunzio, a former Asda chief executive officer and now a senior adviser to KKR, according to the Sunday Times, which didn’t disclose its source for the information. He would become chairman of the supermarket chain if KKR struck a deal, it said.

Sainsbury’s attempt to create the biggest U.K. supermarket chain with its 7.3 billion-pound purchase of Asda faced a major setback on Wednesday after antitrust authorities attached harsher-than-expected conditions for approval. The report drove Sainsbury shares down the most in more than a decade, and weighed on shares throughout the industry.

The Competition and Markets Authority said the companies might have to sell off one of their two well-known corporate brands to win approval. The companies are unwilling to make such a move, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg, leading to speculation that Walmart may seek a buyer elsewhere and that private-equity firms may start circling Asda.

Any private-equity deal would need to be structured to allow Walmart a “significant minority holding” to limit the purchase price while allowing it to retain Walmart’s buying power, the Sunday Times said, citing unidentified people.

Walmart was not in a rush to find another buyer for Asda, the report said, citing an unidentified person close to the U.S. company, with executives still reviewing the regulator’s findings.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dominic Lau in Hong Kong at dlau92@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fion Li at fli59@bloomberg.net, Jeff Sutherland, John McCluskey

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