Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the new private equity owner of Morrisons, has agreed to sell some of its petrol stations to help push through its takeover of the supermarket.
The £7 billion deal was given the green light by Morrisons’ shareholders in October last year.
However, in March the Competition and Markets Authority said the deal raised competition concerns in relation to the supply of petrol and diesel in 121 local areas across England, Scotland and Wales as these were all areas where Morrisons and CD&R’s Motor Fuel Group both have petrol forecourts.
The CMA was concerned that the companies would face only limited competition after the merger, meaning the deal could lead to an increase in fuel prices. At the time, it said the merger would be referred for a phase 2 investigation unless the parties offered acceptable undertakings to address its concerns.
In a statement yesterday, the CMA said: “CD&R offered undertakings to the CMA, which involve divesting petrol filling stations. The CMA considers that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the undertakings offered by CD&R, or a modified version of them, might be accepted by the CMA under the Enterprise Act 2002.”
There was no indication of how many forecourts CD&R has offered to sell.
