Walmart has asked suitors for its UK grocery unit Asda to submit second-round bids by early September, according to people familiar with the matter, as it forges ahead with a revived sale of the business.
Private equity firms Apollo Global Management, Lone Star Funds and TDR Capital are considering binding offers by the deadline, the people said. Asda could fetch around $10 billion (Dh36.7bn) in any sale, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.
Other potential buyers could also emerge, the people said. Representatives for Walmart, Asda and the potential bidders declined to comment.
Apollo, Lone Star and TDR each submitted offers for Asda earlier this year and were invited to join a second round of bidding, Bloomberg News reported in March. Weeks later, Walmart shelved the process to focus management’s attention on running the business amid unprecedented demand from consumers stockpiling for the Covid-19 lockdown.
Walmart said last week it was reviving the planned sale of Asda, which it has been seeking to offload for at least two years. It reached an agreement with rival supermarket chain J Sainsbury in 2018, only to see the proposed £7.3bn ($9.4bn/Dh34.2bn) deal blocked by UK antitrust authorities.
In its latest quarterly update, Asda said comparable sales jumped 3.5 per cent in the three months through March. Demand levels were so high it was receiving 3,500 visits a minute to its website in the week starting March 18, according to Asda.