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The private equity owners of U.K. supermarket chain Somerfield Group are on the verge of cashing out with roughly £2 billion ($4 billion) from the Co-operative Group, as reports say the deal may close as early as next week.
A Sunday Express report said that the acquirer and target are working together on ways to head off competition concerns and deciding which of the chain's 900 stores to sell off. Somerfield was taken private for £1.8 billion in 2005 by a consortium that included Apax Partners Worldwide LLP, Kaupthing Bank hf and Robert Tchenguiz, a U.K. property tycoon. The Deal's Jonathan Braude writes: The owners put Bristol-based Somerfield up for sale in January and appointed Citigroup Inc. to run the auction, partly because Tchenguiz is keen to raise some cash to offset losses in other investments. But none of the big four U.K. chains, Tesco plc, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s U.K. arm, Asda Group Ltd., J Sainsbury plc or Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc, were in the race for long.And with the credit crunch blocking financial buyers access to leveraged debt, for deals the auction failed to attract other private equity firms for a secondary buyout. - George White See Thompson story on Somerfield See auction update on TheDeal.com See auction page on Auction Block See Supermarket Dealwatch CategoriesPrivate capital video
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