Asda and Sainsbury’s are still rumoured to be among the front-runners in the race to buy Irish supermarket group Superquinne, after Cork-based wholesale grocery group Musgrave withdrew its bid late last week.
According to the Irish Times, Musgrave is understood to have refused to meet the valuation placed on the business by its owners Select Retail Holdings. Speculation in Ireland suggests that Musgrave was around €100 million (£77.3m) adrift of SRH’s supposed €250m price tag.
Musgrave is still thought to be in the running for the Superquinn chain, and is said to be one of six parties to have expressed an interest. Alongside the UK’s numbers two and three chains, Irish wholesale grocer BWG, which operates the Spar and Mace symbol groups, is also thought to be a interested party.
Musgrave controls more than 20 per cent of the Irish grocery market through its SuperValu and Centra chains, and it was billed as favourite to land Superquinn to beef up its presence in Dublin and stave off a potential raid on market share by an unwanted UK rival.
Superquinn generated sales of €620m in 2007. Its share of the market has slipped below eight per cent. However, the company has become more profitable since SRH bought the business in 2005 for €420m. It has 24 stores and intends to grow to 35 stores.
Tesco is the biggest player in the Irish grocery market with a share of more than 26 per cent.
