Morrisons wins takeover race for McColl’s

The Morrison supermarket has won a battle to take control of McColl’s after the convenience retailer said last week that it had been left with no other option than to place the company into administration in order to preserve the future of the business.

According to a report by Sky News, Morrisons beat off competition from Asda owner EG Group over the weekend with an offer that will buy out McColl’s syndicate of lenders.

Structured as part of a pre-pack administration, the deal will see McColl’s 1,100  stores and 16,000-strong workforce being entirely preserved. It has also been reported that Morrisons will honour all of McColl’s outstanding pension obligations.

McColl’s said on Friday that its senior lenders had declined to further extend the waiver of the company’s banking covenants, which had expired. It also notified of its intention to appoint PwC as administrators in the expectation that they would implement a sale of the business to a third-party purchaser as soon as possible.

An announcement is expected to be made by PwC later today.

Morrisons has already been working with McColl’s through the operation of hundreds of shops under the Morrisons Daily brand.