Sainsbury ditches sale

SAINSBURY’s has abandoned plans to sell its banking operation after concluding the approaches it has received do not offer good value for shareholders.

Britain’s second-biggest grocer started exploring the sale of the bank a year ago as ultra-low interest rates and Covid-19 disruption increased pressures on the business. Banks including Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and nat-West were among possible suitors.

Exploring the plan, and the interest shown in the supermarket’s banking arm, was ‘in the best interests of shareholders’, according to the board, but it eventually decided the ‘expressions of interest do not offer better value for shareholders’ than holding on to the division.