Kroger eyed by Ahold Delhaize
The US super market chain Kroger [NYSE:KR] is rumoured to be eyed by its Dutch – Belgian competitor Ahold Delhaize, the Dutch news sites Mena.nl and Iex.nl reported, based on information from press agency Bloomberg.
A tweet from an anonymous Twitter account said that Ahold has hired advisors and is working on a bid of USD 32 per share to acquire Kroger. It’s unsure who is behind the Twitter account and where the information comes from, Mena reported.
A combination of Ahold Delhaize and Kroger would make sense from a geographic point of view, Iex.nl noted. But a merger between the two companies would be more likely than Kroger being acquired by Ahold, the report said, quoting analyst Alan Vandenberghe of KBC Securities.
Matthias Maenhaut, an analyst of ING, said it’s unlikely that Ahold will acquire Kroger, because such a deal would bring too much debts to Ahold.