Safeway, Albertsons To Sell 168 Stores To Four Buyers

(RTTNews) - AB Acquisition LLC (Albertsons) and Safeway Inc. (SWY) announced on Friday about sale of 168 stores across eight states to four buyers, subject to approval by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Safeway, which agreed in March to be acquired by an investor group led by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, said that divestiture of these stores is being undertaken in order to secure FTC clearance of its proposed merger and are all subject to approval by the FTC. Albertsons is privately owned by Cerberus Capital Management, Kimco Realty Corp. (KIM), Klaff Realty, Lubert-Adler Partners and Schottenstein Stores Corp.

Associated Food Stores will purchase eight stores in Montana and Wyomin; Associated Wholesale Grocers / Minyards will purchase 12 stores in Texas; SUPERVALU (SVU) will purchase two stores in Washington and Pacific Northwest grocery chain Haggen will purchase 146 stores across Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. With this acquisition, Haggen will expand from 18 stores with 16 pharmacies to 164 stores with 106 pharmacies.

Under the terms of the purchase agreements, the buyers will acquire the stores, equipment and inventory, and they intend to hire most, if not all, of the store employees upon the closing of the purchase of the stores.

Safeway President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Edwards, who will serve as the combined company's President and CEO, "We're pleased to have found strong buyers for these stores and to have completed this important step toward combining Albertsons and Safeway,"

SWY closed Friday's trading session at $34.77.