Battle lines

25 April 2007 By John Foley Follow @johnsfoley

Three Delta, a propertyfocused fund, has bought a 14% stake in the UK supermarket group. That intensifies the pressure on the board. If the result is a more valuable Sainsbury s, that s all for the good. But the risk is that Sainsbury s just ends up in even more turmoil.

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Three Delta, a Qatari investment firm, has bought 14% of J Sainsbury, the UK supermarket chain, according to people familiar with the situation. The stake was purchased at 575p a share, an 8.5% premium to Tuesday's closing price.

Paul Taylor, who heads up Three Delta, used to work for UK property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz, whose R20 vehicle owns 5% of Sainsbury's shares. Tchenguiz is pushing for Sainsbury's to spin off its property into a listed realestate investment trust.

Private equity firms TPG, Blackstone and CVC targeted Sainsbury's earlier this month with an offer of 582p a share. The consortium walked away when it was unable to gain the support of the Sainsbury family, which owns 18% of Sainsbury's.

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