The Co-op and Asda have both tabled bids for the whole of Somerfield, according to the Sunday press.
The two giants immediately become the front-runners to buy the Bristol-based supermarket chain, with competing offers that the Sunday Times claims are well below the £2.5 billion wanted by Somerfield shareholders.
“It is increasingly likely the Bristol-based company will be broken up,” said the report, but it is known that Somerfield’s shareholder consortium - private-equity groups Apax, Barclays Capital and property magnate Robert Tchenguiz - would prefer to sell the company as a whole.
The suggestion is that the low bids by Co-op and Asda could be a smoking out tactic to force a break-up of the group.
