Morrisons clinches deal for UK retailer McColl's - Sky News

MccollS Retail

09/05/2022 11:06

May 9 (Reuters) - British supermarket group Morrisons has
won a battle with the owners of rival Asda to buy convenience
store chain McColl's out of administration, Sky News reported on
Monday.
    McColls, which runs 1,100 stores and employs 16,000,
collapsed into administration, a form of protection from
creditors, on Friday, with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) named as
administrator.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2WY1H1
    EG Group, the petrol station and food retail business owned
by brothers Zuber and Mohsin Issa and private equity group TDR
Capital, had been set to seize control of McColls after its
lenders rejected a rescue deal from Morrisons. The brothers and
TDR also own Asda.
    However, over the weekend Morrisons, which has a wholesale
supply agreement with McColl's, came back with another proposal
that will see all of its stores and staff preserved, pension
obligations honoured and lenders repaid in full.
    Morrisons, McColl's and EG Group all declined to comment.
    McColl's had been in talks with its lenders for weeks to try
to resolve its funding woes. Its shareholders had seen the value
of their investment virtually wiped out over the last year.
    The retailer's stock was suspended from trading on Friday.

 (Reporting by Muhammed Husain in Bengaluru, Additional
reporting by James Davey in London; Editing by Krishna Chandra
Eluri)
 ((Muhammed.Husain@thomsonreuters.com))