Morrisons prepares £1.5bn Iceland bid

By Neil Craven for The Mail on Sunday
Updated:

 

Morrisons, Britain's number four supermarket chain, was reported last night to be preparing a £1.5bn bid for Iceland, the frozen food retailer.

Morrisons Trolley

Any such deal would give Morrisons a greatly-increased store network - Iceland has about 750 outlets, to Morrisons 442 - although Iceland's premises tend to be smaller high-street branches.

Should the interest be confirmed, it could trigger an auction for Iceland as other chains such as Asda and Sainsbury's try to buy some or all of the stores.

Iceland's founder Malcolm Walker may also make an offer.

Iceland was started in Britain but ironically ended up being owned by two Icelandic groups, first Baugur and then the Icelandic bank Lansbanki, which is now being wound up, thus the need to find a buyer.

Morrisons last night declined to comment.

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

Most watched Money videos

{"status":"error","code":"499","payload":"Asset id not found: readcomments comments with assetId=1724050, assetTypeId=1"}