Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about shock £10bn grocery merger.

https://news.sky.com/story/sainsbury...erger-11349799

https://www.theguardian.com/business...deal?CMP=fb_gu

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Well both have terrible customer service, but at least Sainsbury's doesn't use a foreign call centre.

Asda has a reputation for attracting the poorer working class types who wouldn't pay more for groceries even if they were better quality, so I doubt a conversion to Sainsbury's would work.

On the other side of the coin, Sainsbury's tends to attract the middle classes who can't afford or won't pay M&S prices, so Sainsbury's is used as a middle ground. Any willing to shift downmarket will already have done so to the likes of Lidl etc. They console themselves by saying that they are shopping continental as opposed to budget shopping :D

I wonder if they mean combining their purchasing functions, distribution etc to increase their buying power and achieve economies of scale, rather than the actual stores themselves?

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Personally l prefer Sainsbury's rather then Asda as Asda always seem to have items out of stock plus Sainsbury's fresh produce is far superior to that of Asda IMO...

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Do you mean in-store or online/telephony?

I shop at both (both in NW Leeds), and have never had any bad, never mind, terrible customer service - I have found staff at our local stores friendly and helpful.

It's a shame you have had a bad experience.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

The staff in stores are generally ok, it's the email side of Sainsbury's that I've had a problem with. I broke a tooth on some glass found in their own brand pasta salad (think I mentioned it on here). I initially wanted to warn them so that other customers weren't put in danger.

They ignored my emails, it was only when my solicitor became involved that they offered me £50, which didn't even cover my expenses, let alone compensate me for the pain etc, so I rejected their first out of court offer. I was surprised that Sainsbury's behaved like this.

As for Asda, you might as well call VM about your groceries, because you'd get as much sense out of them. When they try to answer emails it is hilarious though, one offered "a million apologies" and stated that the previous person would be "severely punished" for giving out the wrong information :D

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

More quotes and analysis of the proposed merger.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43933517

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Isn't ASDA owned by Walmart?

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Yes it is Pip.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

I used to shop at Tesco and have earned through the Clubcard scheme many free trips for family, saving hundreds of pounds. A few years ago, they seemed to be getting expensive so I shifted my main shopping to Asda. Here I have built up over £100 in free shopping using an Asda credit card. I hope they don't stop that with the merger as you get far more with that than you do with Sainsbury's Nectar card, especially with the recent proposed complicated changes. I find the Asda prices reasonable and the quality of their own brand good. My only complaint is the running down of the tills in favour of 'do it yourself' which I refuse to do. My local 24 hour Asda shuts all the tills at 9pm. If I need to shop after that I go to Tesco who have one till open I think until midnight. I think the prices at Tesco have come down recently. Sainsbury's I find on the whole more expensive.

On a few occasions I have had cause to use Customer Services at all three supermarkets. Every time I have been treated courteously and the problem sorted.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Really? Do you get points on your ASDA card purchases from ebay etc?

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

AFAIK, if you pay with the Asda Card you get cashback, rather than points.

---------- Post added at 16:07 ---------- Previous post was at 16:06 ----------

Last time I had to use Asda's telephone customer service, they were not foreign.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

I can use points for purchases so basically the same as cashback.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

This old belief that somehow Sainsbury's isn't a place where poorer people shop is wrong we do 90% of our shopping at Sainsbury's and they have a product range to fit any budget we mainly shop there as quality of goods even the budget brands has been better for us. We don't have an Asda where i live so this wouldn't really affect us.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

l quite agree Rizzy as every time l mention to my Mum that we went to Sainsbury's or are going to go there her answer is its dear in there to which l reply its no dearer then anywhere else..:)

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

I haven't called them for many months as I couldn't be doing with their foreign call centre.

After what you wrote, I called 0800 952 0101 and, hey presto, someone English answered!

It does seem that they've dumped them, result!

---------- Post added at 22:05 ---------- Previous post was at 22:04 ----------

It is dearer, but sometimes it's better quality.

To check for yourself you can compare a typical basket at mysupermarket.com.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

It is about consolidating costs. Asda will be absorbed into Sainsburys with Walmart becoming a major shareholder in Sainsburys. All Asda stores and depots will close which will shift the sales and revenue to Sainsburys whilst at the same time saving hundreds of millions of pounds in operating costs for Asda. No more staff wages, no more utility costs for the stores, no equipment costs for the logistical side of things etc. The sad thing is that I imagine everyone at Asda will be made redundant as I see no reason why any of the staff would need to be migrated to Sainsburys. The store where I live is massive and the current space given to all the products means that they never sell out during the day, even if sales doubled due to Asda closing (which is 1 mile down the road). They might need to take a couple of extra night staff on to cope with the increased volume of stock coming in but that is it.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Is this a serious business propostion General?

As regards logistics (store supply) ASDA is far bigger than Sainsburys and is ideally placed to take over anything Sainsburys have.

As regards stores, in the area I live there are at least 4 ASDA stores 3-4 times larger than anything (of the 2 I can think of) Sainsbury have.

Of the Sainsburys store and the ASDa one where I live if any store closes it will be the Sainsburys one first because it is not in the correct area of town for maximisation of trade but it's also so small compared to the ASDA store and Morrissons both of which are about 3 miles away but near each other. My Sainsburys is stuck up a side road with no other retail outlets near it. That was good planning.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Asda are strong in the north but not as strong in the south and vice versa for Sainsbury's as we have far more Sainsbury's stores down here then we have Asda stores.

Not a fan of the Daily Mail but their piece on the possible merger is here..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ks-merger.html

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

yup, I can assure you that Asda and Walmart don't bother doing anything unless it is making them £££ so just by the fact that they are having these talks means it is serious. Because everything is about £££ the decision is made before they even begin "discussing" something and by the time it ends up in the public eye it is a done deal. Even though they are "in advanced talks" I can guarantee it will go head because they wouldn't have gone to all this effort and expense (with the lawyers and financial accountants etc) if they didn't want it to happen.

In terms of stores your situation is interesting. In most cases Asda stores will close and Sainsburys will takeover because they are better suited and already fit for the future. I won't bore you with the detail but as one of the posts says above, Asda's product availability is rubbish and last time I checked the official stats they are the worst out of the big 4 supermarkets. They are in the process of rolling out a new system in stores which manages how they replenish stock and fill the shelves but Sainsburys has been using it for years and already has a streamlined process in place.
Sainsburys also have a different operating model. Because everything is about cost with Asda they try to cram as much as they can into as little space as possible. They prefer to keep aisle widths as tight as possible so they can squeeze additional aisles into any given shop space thus maximising the number of products they sell. They also keep the amount of space to any given product to a minimum so they can stock more products. The upside to this is smaller stores (despite how large some of them are) which means reduced building costs and land costs etc. The downside is labour costs because you have to have staff in during the day filling the shelves. Because the amount of space each product holds isn't sufficient for daily sales, if somebody didn't fill it up it would empty.
In contrast, Sainsburys do the opposite and build everything around having more than enough stock for any given product on the shelf so it doesn't sell out during the day which means the shelves only have to be filled once at night. This means larger stores of course but I imagine the initial investment with land mitigates the long term labour cost of day staff.
As an example, in my Asda everything on the frozen food department is on one row whether it be chips, vegetables or ice cream which means you are looking at 15-20 bags/boxes per product and they need to constantly fill it up to keep on top of demand. The frozen department in Sainsburys is more than twice as large and chips and vegetables are on 4 rows each to ensure they don't sell out during the day. Each of the lines of ice cream lollies or tubs (e.g. Carte Dor) have an entire shelf each which is 60+ tubs, some are over 100. The space is ridiculous and ensures they don't need to pay for anyone to work during the day and they only need to top it up at night.

Your situation is interesting Pip. If the Asda stores are in a better location compared to the Sainsburys I imagine the Sainsbury's will close completely and they will do a complete remodel of the Asda stores and convert them to Sainsburys spec. Either that or get rid of them all completely and build one or two larger purpose built stores from scratch but that is a lot of extra money and time with regards to planning permission etc but you may find that is the long term plan in certain areas to get the company where it needs to be to compete with Tesco long term.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

I have never had any issues with either Asda or Sainsburys.

I use 1 of the 3 Tesco's I have in my town for my weekly shop, Sainsburys for top up and our medication is done through the instore pharmacy, and we by some bit bits on Saturday in Asda to get free parking.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

I think in a working class town like Mansfield where I live, if they rename Asda as Sainsbury many of the existing Asda customers will shop at Tesco or Morrison instead.

I don't think decisions have yet been made about renaming stores.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

The merger has to happen yet as there is likely to be the biggest competition inquiry in in a long time as there are considerable barriers which have to be overcome first.

https://www.theguardian.com/business...urys-asda-deal

https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/art...mean-it-should

https://www.ft.com/content/cc583a5e-...e-22951a2d8493

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

I am pretty confident it will transition to Sainsburys and with Walmarts buying power you will see a completely new and reinvented pricing strategy from Sainsburys which will make them cheaper than Tesco on branded products. Own brand may be a bit more expensive because Sainsburys tend to go towards better quality whereas Asda and Tesco prioritise price over quality so they can say they are the cheapest. You will definitely find though that with the volume and turn over of stock Asda get through on branded products, regardless of category, that Sainsbury's will be the cheapest going forward.

Initially there will be a lag phase when Asda stores close. A large portion of the customer base will shift to Tesco believing they are the next cheapest retailer so there won't be an immediate direct transfer of sales to Sainsburys. Over time though once the transition is established, the supply chain in place and marketing campaign on price which will be advertised to death for months, Sainsburys will pull all the Asda customers back. You would think it will take time to do but you would be amazed how fast Walmart works and what they can get done in lightning speed. They won't wait and allow for any sort of period of change in the stores (e.g. taking 6 months to find there feet and work things out) where customers are unsure what is happening and give them a reason to go to Tescos. When it happens it will happen big time and Sainsburys will undergo a massive transformation so that customers know that as Asda closes, they can get the same products at the same cheap prices at Sainsburys and there is no need to shop anywhere else. They will do everything they can to ensure as fewer customers switch to Tesco as possible.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Walmart in the many years they have owned Asda have not managed to increase its market share. In fact, Sainsbury's has overtaken Asda as the second biggest supermarket. Walmart do not understand the UK market

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

That is certainly true as Walmart might be the biggest boy in the States but pretty well fails to understand the British consumer and market

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

The snobbery in this thread makes me laugh from the "lower end working class types" shopping at Asda to the Sainsbury's upper class making out it's some kind of prestige place to go shopping. I've shopped at all 3 of the big stores I wouldn't rate Sainsbury's any better than the other 2. If anything I find it's prices are slightly on the higher side compared to the other 2 and the stores seems lacking when it comes to over all products be that food/every day items or electrical.

I've also noticed Sainsbury's tend to have their stores on the posher areas hence the prices.

On the other hand Morrison's tend to be ok to shop at.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Well the two Sainsbury's stores in our fair city are certainly not in the posh area Gavin l can tell you..:erm:

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

For a while Asda was No. 2 overall when you factored in clothing and homeware sales but I believe they lost the position again and dropped back to 3rd and it is purely due to the number of stores versus Sainsburys and Tescos.

true but Asda's business model has always been about price. They like to shout about customer service and product quality and loads of other stuff but in all honesty the only thing they have ever cared about is price and being able to advertise themselves as Britain's cheapest supermarket. They think that as long as stuff is cheap enough customers will overlook anything else which they would normally be concerned about. When you are focused on being cheap then you are appealing to a certain demographic. They won the Grocer 33 award something like 13 years running and loved to put all those adverts on tv during The X Factor letting everyone know how cheap they are but they can't do that anymore because Aldi and Lidl have taken over in the price war. This has left Asda in a bit of a rut because price was the only thing they had going for them. They once excelled in customer service and were No. 1 but Sainsburys and Tesco quickly learnt the benefits of that and adopted the same policies. To catch up with the competition they would have to provide better quality own brand products which either means less profit or increased price and they need to build bigger store so there is more space and you aren't playing dodgems with your trolley every time you go shopping. All that means increased cost and less profit which they aren't interested in. Everything is about profit which is why they are happy to merge with Sainsburys, you remove the operating cost of your own business, join an existing business which already has the foundations in place of where you mostly want to be (e.g. shopfloor space and stock process) and then just tweak it slightly to your business strategy for pricing. It is cheaper for Walmart to use Sainsburys than it is to start from scrath and build new Asda stores with increased space. As an example, Asda is the only supermarket which uses decades old monochrome two line checkouts, all the other supermarkets including Waitrose, Aldi and Lidl use colour touch screens tills. The reason why Asda don't make the change is because it will cost millions to do so and in their eyes provide no return (on investment). Upgrading the tills and technology may look good but it isn't going to generate them any extra sales or revenue and if it doesn't make them money then they aren't interested.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

You seem to be stuck on this image of all ASDA stores being smaller than Sainsbury's when this is not the case. There are many areas especially in the north where ASDA stores are larger.

When the merger takes place which I'm sure it will then some ASDA stores will close as will some Sainsbury's ones.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

I imagine that will be the case but it will be a last resort and a huge balancing exercise in cost. If they close a Sainsburys store in favour of an Asda one they will have to completely gut the Asda store and take them down to the brick and redesign everything and put all new everything in from scratch which will cost about £5 million per store. They will do that where they have to and probably have a 3 year conversion plan in place for the company and will take a one off hit to do it to bring all stores in line with their future vision.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

I'll agree to disagree on that. You seem to be blinkered in your view of ASDA stores perhaps due to your own experience. Back in the 70's I worked at what was then the largest ASDA in Lancashire. Even compared to stores now it is more than large enough.

You still haven't convinced me that a change from ASDA to Sainsbury's will cost £5m per store. Where did you pluck that figure from?

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

A lick of paint , a few different signs , a few other things and Bobs your uncle for a few thousand pip.;)

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

This could be a big stumbling block for this proposed merger.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

I'm a painter and decorator, I know that.:D

I've worked on store & pub refurbs too.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

I can't say but I can assure you it is a very accurate figure

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Have you got any proof of this General?.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Around my local area it would be Sainsbury's that needed to invest in store updates so I'm not sure what his proof could be. There is quite a few Asda stores which have already had million pound store updates in the last 5 years.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

It's classified

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

The business analysists on the BBC news seem to concur that the general demographic of both retailers are at polar opposite ends of the spectrum.

I agree with GM about Asda thinking that customers will forgive all shortcomings if prices are low and doing everything as cheaply as possible. Whenever i've had a problem they just initially tried to throw a paltry £5 at me instead of sorting it out!

I simply used the £15 voucher that I ended up getting (it was like pulling teeth) and shopped elsewhere.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

I believe ALDI pay their staff higher wages than the other larger richer Super Markets!

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Yeah, i think Aldi is £8.50ph and the others are minimum wage.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Tesco will be paying £8.42 an hour by November 2018 while Sainsbury’s is intent on increasing the hourly pay for their workers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40386827


https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog...paying-grocer/

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Our local Sainsburys is currently under going a minor refurb to add a Argos into it.

It could be fun in seeing if the Sainsburys store sell similar products that Argos sells at different prices.

The question now is which one of the 2 Argos stores that we have will get the axe.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/people/p...556212.article

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

It isn't as straight forward as it sounds. Asda is trying to make it look like it is doing the same however afaik the increased pay rates with Asda, Tescos and Sainsburys aren't just straight forward increases in pay, they involve a contract change to move you onto a flexible working contract (different shift patterns every week) and reduced holiday allowance as well as some other changes like unpaid breaks etc.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

My daughter works at Morrisons, I can tell you with 100% certainty that you think incorrectly.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

I have copied some key points below:

https://news.sky.com/story/sainsbury...orces-11353408

I don't believe for a second that there won't be store closures and job losses. They must think we are all stupid if they think saying that is going to get them off the hook with the unions and through the CMA approval process. There will need to be firm guarantees in place because I can bet that after a year and everything has settled down it will be "due to challenging times in the retail sector we have had to take the unforeseen and regrettable decision to close 40% of our stores. This will help realign the business and ensure we continue even better prices to our customers bla bla bla..."

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

The only supermarket I've really had issues with has been Tesco. And that was a local staffing problem - why put a veggie on the meat counter, or someone who doesn't eat cheese on the cheese counter.

ASDA have been useful to source certain ingredients e.g. canned pinto beans but there isn't a branch local to us. Generally I use Waitrose or Aldi as they are in walking distance. I prefer Waitrose because the staff know their stuff and their range is better but Aldi really do well and are priced better. Tesco is probably the biggest but the hardest to get to so Sainsbury's are next in line. My preferred though is to use local suppliers where I can especially for meat which for the same "quality level" is cheaper than the supermarkets.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

The first stores to close will be Argos once outlets have been moved into Asda and Sainsbury's.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Indeed no good have standalone stores when you can fit them quite easily into the spare supermarket space both companies have plus you save on the rent , business rates and overheads at the same time.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

My eldest son has just finished working for Sainsburys and he was not on minimum wage, he found Sainsburys to treat their staff well and were very fair to him when it came to time off for his studies. He did say that jobs will be lost should this merger happen despite what is said, having said that he is glad he won't be there to see the changes this may bring to old colleagues.

Sainsburys atm is going through a huge change as they plan to axe thousands of management jobs from its stores to save money, well they were at the time of him leaving on Saturday.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

The upbeat Mike Coupe of Sainsbury's said today that Argos had grown its outlets under Sainsbury's ownership - up from about 760 to over 850. Argos is an example of a company that has adapted well to the online onslaught and should benefit from the demise of Toys'R'Us in the UK. But as others have said, if there's a nearby Sainsbury store, Argos will relocate into it once its lease expires. Makes good sense to me.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Asda did this a couple of years ago, get rid of a tonne of managers and replace them with supervisors. They rename the job roles to make it look like it is a new position and not a direct replacement of a previous role.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

They'll also be being incorporated into ASDA stores.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

So does this mean Wall Mart will become the biggest shareholder of the biggest supermarket chain in the UK?

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

According to this they would be the biggest shareholder.

https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/n...-group-limited

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sainsbury%27s

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

That's pretty bad IMO.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

There is no doubt the logic behind Sainsbury's takeover of Asda and Tesco's purchase of Booker is the big 80lb gorilla Amazon lurking on the horizon plus you have Lidl and Aldi making bigger inroads into the UK market and they are no lightweights either..

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Why ?

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Not really, Asda is worth more. You would think that Sainsburys would be majority shareholder as they are buying it but it makes sense that the company that is worth more retains control. My only worry is that Walmart drag Sainsburys downhill because as far as they are concerned everything is about price and cost and i can see the Taste The Difference range disappearing.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

l doubt it as a lot of Sainsbury's daily popular items are already the same price of the other supermarkets generally and as for the Taste The Difference range disappearing there is no chance of that disappearing as that is a extremely popular profitable range which only a fool would get rid of.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Because it's another British company being swallowed up by a massive global conglomerate. Especially with the reputation Wall-Mart have in the states and now they'll be one of the biggest companies here.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Do we actually know who the majority share holder is? Who has the other 58%? Why can you see the Taste The Difference range disappearing when Asda have Extra Special range?

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

because Taste the Difference is better quality and more expensive and with Walmart pulling the strings in Sainsburys one of the things they'll want to do is make the TDD range cheaper thinking it will increase sales it is will probably get rebranded to a different to make it look like something new and exciting and also an "improved recipe".

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

You say that but I don't believe they are majority share holders so can they just pull the strings like that.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Where is your proof of this General? as thus so far l don't see any as all he has said "The merged company would cut prices by “circa 10%” on everyday items" And TTD are not everyday items as they are regarding as more in the premium range of items at Sainsbury's..

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

Teacup - storm.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

I think you will find that Sainsbury's will be main share holder and ASDA the minor.

Re: Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger
 

It doesn't really work like that.

- Asda Stores Ltd is 100% owned by Walmart Inc, that's the simple bit. You and I can't buy shares in Asda unless we approached Walmart with a deal which is what Sainsbury's has done.
- J. Sainsbury PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange and you and I can buy shares in it. It does have some large shareholders though - Qatar Holdings owns 22% and Black Rock 5%.
If Asda and Sainsbury combine, the top three shareholders will be Walmart, Qatar Holdings and Black Rock.
As part of the proposed deal, Walmart would get a £3bn payment as well as a 44% stake in the new combined company.

---------- Post added at 20:43 ---------- Previous post was at 20:38 ----------

No proof. Walmart won't care what price the new company charges for things in a far away country. Walmart will be more interested in how the new company's share price performs and its dividends. Its voting rights will be just 29%.