DJ Morrisons Bids Enter Extra Time After Fortress Offer -- Market Talk
1231 GMT - Bids for Wm. Morrison Supermarkets could have further to go after U.K. regulators gave a U.S. private-equity firm more time to make a fresh approach to the U.K. grocer, analysts say. The U.K. Takeover Panel extended the deadline for Clayton Dubilier & Rice LLC to bid for Morrisons, amid the latest GBP6.7 billion offer by SoftBank Group Corp.'s Fortress Investment Group, to Aug. 20 from Aug. 9. Morrisons rejected a GBP5.54 billion possible offer from CD&R in June. Fortress offered GBP6.3 billion for Morrisons last month and increased it Friday. "U.S. private-equity firm [CD&R] planted the seeds for a bidding war on supermarket Morrisons with a request for extra time to make an offer," AJ Bell analyst Danni Hewson says. (philip.waller@wsj.com)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 09, 2021 08:31 ET (12:31 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.