The Office of Fair Trading has decided not to refer the planned acquisition by Wal- Mart’s UK supermarket chain Asda of 12 former Safeway stores in Northern Ireland to the Competition Commission.

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The 12 stores are being sold by Wm Morrison Supermarkets. The sale was announced in 6 June. The aggregate price payable by Asda is £73.6m (US$129.4m) in cash plus the value of fuel stocks at the properties on completion, Morrisons said.


The 12 stores which are subject to the sale are in Ballyclare, Bangor, Belfast – Shore Road, Belfast – Westwood, Coleraine, Cookstown, Dundonald, Enniskillen, Kilkeel, Newtownards, Omagh and Strabane


The disposals are in line with Morrisons strategy of concentrating on its mainland UK network, Morrisons said.

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