UK watchdog investigates Morrisons' purchase of McColl's (updated)

MccollS Retail

13/07/2022 11:24

(Adds background)
    July 13 (Reuters) - Britain's antitrust watchdog said on
Wednesday it has started investigating if supermarket group
Morrisons' acquisition of certain assets of convenience store
chain McColl's  MCLSM.L  would lead to lesser competition.
    Morrisons in May bought 1,160 McColl's stores in a so-called
pre-pack administration.
    The Competition and Markets Authority has set a deadline of
Sept. 8 for its initial decision.
    Morrisons, which trails market leader Tesco  TSCO.L ,
Sainsbury's  SBRY.L  and Asda, has a wholesale supply deal with
McColl's.
    McColl's has seen over 200 stores converted to Morrison's
Daily stores with a target of 450 by November 2022.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2WY1H1
    McColl's went into administration with debt of just under
170 million pounds ($201.98 million) and its stock was suspended
from trading in May.
    Morrisons and McColl's did not immediately respond to
Reuters requests for comment.

 ($1 = 0.8417 pounds)

 (Reporting by Muhammed Husain in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun
Koyyur and Shounak Dasgupta)
 ((Muhammed.Husain@thomsonreuters.com))