M&S’s £1.8bn Ocado deal

Chain’s talks to launch food deliveries

MARKS & Spencer is in talks to buy half of online grocer Ocado’s delivery arm.

The high street giant yesterday confirmed it was in discussions to form a joint venture to allow it to launch home food deliveries with a bang.

Reports say M&S could announce plans to stump up as much as £900million for a 50 per cent stake in Ocado’s retail arm as early as today.

That’s ahead of a deadline of this Friday to trigger a break clause in Ocado’s 20-year delivery deal with Waitrose.

The deal, valuing the venture at £1.8billion, would give M&S access to Ocado’s more that 700,000 customers. And it would meet M&S’s aim, under boss Steve Rowe and chairman Archie Norman, of becoming more family focused.

Analyst Bruno Monteyne, from City firm Bernstein, said the tie-up would boost Ocado’s new Zoom superfast delivery service.

The deal would allow the rest of Ocado, under boss Tim Steiner, to focus on licensing its technology to other retailers around the world.

A delivery arrangement with Morrisons would also fall under this part of the bbusiness. Monteyne said: “The deal makes lots of strategic sense for both M&S and Ocado. It is too early for Ocado to lose their retail business as it is an essential and unbeatable part of the sales pitch to global customers”

M&S and Ocado said: “There is no certainty these discussions will result in any agreement or as to the timing of any such agreement.”

M&S’s share price jumped three per cent on the back of the news. Ocado’s shares leapt nearly 12 per cent, recovering some of the losses since a fire destroyed a warehouse in Andover, Hampshire, this month. SCOTTISHPOWER yesterday announced plans to pump a record £2billion into green energy schemes this year.

The investment, the energy giant’s biggest ever in the UK, involves money for onshore and offshore wind farms and a network of fast charging points for electric cars.

The spending, part of £6billion between 2018 and 2022, is a boost to the UK ahead of Brexit.

ScottishPower boss Keith Anderson said: “We are confident in the future of the country.”

However, it comes as nearly one million ScottishPower households will be hit with a big price rise in April.