Analysts predict Amazon bid for Morrisons

ANALYSTS ARE speculating that retail giant Amazon may make a takeover bid for Morrisons, although a deal is far from certain.

At a time when Sainsbury’s has made an audacious takeover approach for Asda and Tesco’s takeover of Booker has been waved through by the competition authorities, the industry is speculating as to who could be next to tie the knot.

Analyst Bryan Roberts at TCC Global said: “Looking ahead, a takeover bid from Amazon is not beyond the realms of possibility, as the e-commerce behemoth looks to grow its footprint in UK retail – something that became clear after rumours surfaced that it made moves to buy Waitrose in 2017.”

However, other experts played down the possibility.

Analysts at Macquarie said: “We are not fully convinced that bigger is better in the case of Asda and Sainsbury’s and believe Morrisons has plenty of organic and potentially some inorganic opportunities to purse and create shareholder value.”

The news came as Morrisons reported a better-than-expected 3.6 per cent rise in sales. The grocery chain notched up its tenth quarter in a row of rising group like-for-like sales and defied expectations of a slowdown in growth after the sector was battered by the ‘Beast from the East’ cold snap earlier this year.

But it remained tight-lipped in the first-quarter update on the £12bn merger of rivals Sainsbury’s and Asda, which would spark one of the biggest shakeups in the supermarket sector since Morrisons itself took over Safeway 14 years ago.