These AGs need to get going if they plan to sue to block it. The clock is ticking. I am afraid some of them are all talk because they are up for re-election soon and want endorsements from the unions who are against the merger. Where is WA, they were so against it before and the whole dividend thing. What happened? It is like they got paid off or something to shut up. Typical.retailfanmitchell019 wrote: ↑November 22nd, 2023, 12:20 am FTC possibly wrapping up compliance relating to the Kroger/Albertsons merger:
https://www.winsightgrocerybusiness.com ... ets-closer
"Citing a posting on X from investigative M&A news service Dealreporter, investor website Seeking Alpha reported last week that Kroger and Albertsons were slated to certify “substantial compliance” with the FTC’s second information request around Nov. 15, and the transaction wouldn’t close prior to Feb. 13. The Dealreporter post said the information request compliance date was stated in the “Whalen shareholder lawsuit,” a consumer suit against the merger that was dismissed back in August."
The merger agreement does contain a termination date of at least Jan, 13, 2024, according to SEC filings. However, the termination date can be extended in 30 day blocks until October 9, 2024. Right in the middle of election season.
Note how this article says "C&S is a a large, experienced and unionized grocery industry player". Oh, you meant the de facto successor to Fleming, who was inept at running its own corporate retail? C&S only operates 11 retail stores, they are 99.9% a wholesaler.
C&S is backed by the Japanese bank SoftBank for this deal. I suspect C&S is the puppet, with SoftBank pulling the strings of C&S to flip the divested stores for real estate by 2025 (SoftBank is into real estate). Will turn out similar to the Haggen trainwreck wherein Comvest was using Haggen to buy Albertsons/Safeway divests and flip the stores for real estate months later. I still believe Haggen was used by Comvest as a space-filler in SoCal/NV/AZ.
Lina Khan, the FTC Chair, has been doing town halls relating to the merger. People at the town halls have been mentioning the Haggen trainwreck, even in Denver, where nothing was divested.
AG Bonta here in CA is still deciding if the state of California will sue Kroger.
I'm still praying this merger is stopped.
I believe C&S committed to operating all of the divested stores. I do not recall if a time period was stated.
This is a departure from when C&S bought Fleming as they actually were sort of the, how do we say, "deposit box of Fleming warehouses/assets" and then they split them off to various other parties and only kept a few facilities themself.