Private equity group CVC Capital Partners has abandoned its £10 bn (EUR 14.7 bn) offer for UK retail chain Sainsbury. CVC was forced to throw in the towel after the family that founded Sainsbury stuck to its demand for 600 pence per share, rather than the 582 pence offer put forward by CVC. In recent days, the Blackstone Group, Texas Pacific Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) dropped out of the consortium with CVC that was seeking to acquire Sainsbury and its 700 stores, valued at £7.5 bn.

Private equity group CVC Capital Partners has abandoned its £10 bn (EUR 14.7 bn) offer for UK retail chain Sainsbury. CVC was forced to throw in the towel after the family that founded Sainsbury stuck to its demand for 600 pence per share, rather than the 582 pence offer put forward by CVC. In recent days, the Blackstone Group, Texas Pacific Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) dropped out of the consortium with CVC that was seeking to acquire Sainsbury and its 700 stores, valued at £7.5 bn.

There has been speculation in recent weeks that the consortium was planning a repeat of the strategy used by KKR in the Netherlands two years ago. In that case, a group led by KKR paid EUR 1.6 bn for retailer Vendex before selling on the properties in a sale-and-leaseback deal for EUR 1.5bn.