Deals
Sainsbury Agrees to Buy Home Retail for About $1.9 Billion
- Companies yet to formalize deal, secure three-week extension
- Sainsbury quantifies potential benefits of buying Argos owner
The acquisition would be Sainsbury’s biggest, giving it more than 800 Argos stores and a vastly expanded product delivery network.
Photographer: Simon Dawson/BloombergJ Sainsbury Plc agreed to buy Home Retail Group Plc for about 1.3 billion pounds ($1.9 billion), handing the British grocer control over hundreds of shops selling everything from jewelry to televisions as it tries to create a more potent challenger to Amazon.com Inc.
Sainsbury will pay about 161.3 pence in cash and stock per Home Retail share, 63 percent more than the price prior to the emergence of talks. The companies announced the terms even though they have yet to hammer out a formal offer, and have obtained a three-week extension to a U.K. Takeover Panel deadline that was due to expire today.