Morrisons seeks to gatecrash Mccoll’s deal

MORRISONS sought to gatecrash a takeover for failed convenience store chain Mccoll’s last night in a snub to the billionaire owners of Asda who were on the brink of securing a deal.

Morrisons has made a second offer to buy Mccoll’s that includes a pledge to repay its lenders in full immediately, one of the key sticking points of the supermarket chain’s previous bid, Sky News reported.

PWC is understood to have last night taken final offers from Morrisons and EG Group, the petrol forecourt empire owned by the billionaire Issa brothers who own Asda.

Mccoll’s went into administration on Friday, putting 16,000 jobs at risk. Morrisons had been in pole position to take control last week before lenders rejected a solvent offer that would have involved them rolling over more than £100m of debt into the supermarket chain, but being repaid in full as the loans expired.

However, EG Group’s proposed takeover has raised concerns over the future of Mccoll’s pension fund. The Issa brothers and EG Group’s co-owners, TDR Capital, have proposed to acquire Mccoll’s through a pre-pack administration process, which would allow them to avoid paying creditors and cut ties with the company’s pension scheme. It is not known what the Issas plan to do if they are successful.

Rachel Croft, chairman of trustees at Mccoll’s, wrote to the Issa brothers and TDR yesterday, encouraging them to commit to fully funding the retirement scheme. It would be a “serious breach of the pension promises made to staff ” to do otherwise, she said.

Morrisons and EG Group both declined to comment. Mccoll’s did not respond to a request for comment.