UK supermarket chain Safeway has said it would complain to the Takeover Panel about a report that raised questions over how the retailer accounts for payments from suppliers.
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Safeway, which is currently at the centre of a five-way takeover battle, said the report contained information that could only have been leaked by one of the potential bidders, reported the Financial Times.
The panel has already written to all five interested parties, warning them against leaking any information.
Mike Dennis, an analyst with Cheuvreux, claimed that an analysis of Safeway’s first-half accounts showed that between £40m and £50m (US$62.5-78.1m) of gross profit for the full year could be related to the recovery of six years’ worth of rebates from suppliers.
“What he is trying to claim is that our business model isn’t working,” Safeway was quoted by the FT as saying.
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By GlobalData“He is saying that we are too dependent on suppliers’ payments. But there is nothing transient or impermanent about these payments and all our rivals – bigger and smaller – treat them the same.”
