Sainsbury’s exclusive talks on a £130m takeover of grocery wholesale group Nisa have ground to a halt over fears of intervention by competition authorities. The exclusive talks ended late last week after the Competition and Markets Authority expressed serious concerns about a similar, but much larger, merger between Tesco and the grocery wholesaler Booker. But sources said Nisa had also reopened talks with the Co-op, which had previously expressed an interest in a deal. Insiders said the Morrisons deal had not been a factor in Sainsbury’s decision not to make a bid for Nisa. They would rather remain a mutual.”Both Sainsbury’s and Nisa declined to comment.

Source: The Guardian August 14, 2017 16:21 UTC