Leighton asked to lead Safeway bid
City predators turn to former Asda boss
October 26 2002
Former Asda chief executive Allan Leighton has been approached by several investment banks asking him if he would lead a bid for supermarket group Safeway, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph.
Leighton twice held merger talks with Safeway when he was chief executive of Asda, which was sold to Wal-Mart in 1999. It was recently reported that the US chain has made overtures to the UK Government to establish if a fresh bid would be blocked on competition grounds.
Leighton, currently chairman of Royal Mail, is said to be intrigued by the possibility but is being kept very busy turning that business around. Combined with his other non-executive directorships, which include BHS, this would rule him out of the chief executive role at Safeway following a successful bid, according to the report.
However, he would be confident about putting a management team together and might agree to become non-executive chairman. The Telegraph said Mr Leighton has told bankers to put the finance in place before he makes any decisions.
