Food fight

14 March 2003

An imminent antitrust ruling will trigger the next stage in the £3bn battle for the UK supermarket chain. WalMart and Morrisons look the most likely winners. But don’t expect a rapid resolution.

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The Office of Fair Trading said it has sent recommendations on all submissions in a fiveway bidding battle for Safeway to the UK government at the same time. An announcement was expected around March 18, but the OFT was not expected to have had time to consider all the bids.

The first potential suitor to make a submission was WalMart's Asda on January 14. The last was retail entrepreneur Philip Green on February 11. The only firm offer on the table is Morrisons' allshare bid, the value of which has fallen dramatically.

Philip Green's reputation has been hit by comments made to the Guardian. Among other things, he was reported as saying: For fuck's sake. Jesus Christ. Robin Saunders and Chris Coles are on my board. Allan Leighton is my chairman. I've got a fucking audit committee that I am not on. And Ian Griffiths [a journalist investigating his finances for the Guardian], some old cunt from the Independent, knows more than all those people.

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