Newspapers have reported that Green and Leighton have arranged a meeting with the Office of Fair Trading for later this week and could make the bid before the end of next week.

The advantage of any Green/Leighton bid is that it would probably not be scrutinised by competition authorities as Green's retail empire, which includes BHS, does not feature any food interests.

Meanwhile, David Webster, chairman of Safeway, has reportedly told shareholders to 'await developments' rather than accept Morrisons takeover offer. The store believes its property assets are worth more than originally thought and so will be hoping potential bidders increase their offers closer to 400p a share.

Six groups have expressed interest in Safeway over the past three weeks, but Morrisons is the only one with a firm offer on the table.

Morrisons executive chairman Ken Morrison is insistent that by combining forces with Safeway his group could create a 'true strong fourth national food retailer'.

The four other groups expressing interest are: Sainsbury's, Wal-Mart/Asda, Tesco, and KKR. However, other on-line reports indicate that Sainsbury's could be considering linking up with Morrisons in order to freeze Wal-Mart/Asda out of the picture.

And a seventh interest is rumoured with some analysts pointing to Marks & Spencer. Although the food and clothing chain may just pick up those stores which need to be disposed of by another larger buyer in order to fall into line with competition regulator requirements.

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