Morrisons lines up for Iceland race

By This Is Money
Updated:

 

Morrisons chief executive Dalton Philips refused to rule the supermarket giant out of the £1.5bn race to buy rival Iceland in a bid to boost its presence in the South-East.

Morrisons Supermarket store

Food fight: Morrisons may have to battle Asda for the frozen food specialist

Speaking at the end of the retailer's annual meeting in Bradford yesterday, Philips said: 'We look right across the country at all areas.

It would be unprofessional to talk about a single retailer - but you have got to look at everything.'

The country's fourth-largest supermarket (up 1p at 297.2p) may have to battle Asda, owned by Walmart of the US, which is also understood to want the 780-store frozen-food specialist.

Malcolm Walker, Iceland's founder and chief executive, is also keen to regain control of the chain, and owns 23% of the retailer along with management.

Morrisons chairman Sir Ian Gibson defended the board's award of 1.2m shares to finance director Richard Pennycook after former chief executive Marc Bolland decided to leave for Marks & Spencer.

He said: 'Our shares fell as much as 10% on the day it was announced Marc Bolland was leaving the business. We did not want to find out what the market would do if we said another senior executive was leaving.'

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