Apollo confirms interest in Morrisons bid

Morrisons announced over the weekend that it has agreed to a takeover by a consortium comprising Fortress Investment Group (owned by SoftBank), the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board's CPPIB Credit Investments unit, and Koch Real Estate Investments, a subsidiary of US conglomerate Koch Industries. The offer of 252 pence per share, which also involves an additional 2 pence special dividend, values Morrisons' equity at £6.3bn, not including net debt of £3.2bn.

It was then reported that Apollo had engaged Morgan Stanley to help examine a potential takeover bid for Morrisons. 

"[Apollo] is in the preliminary stages of evaluating a possible offer for Morrisons. No approach has been made to the board of Morrisons," Apollo said in a statement. "There can be no certainty that any offer will be made, nor as to the terms on which any such offer might be made."

Should Apollo make an offer topping that of the Fortress consortium, and should the deal go through, it would turn into the second largest buyout ever recorded for a UK company, according to Unquote Data. While exceeding the recent £6.8bn deal in which TDR Capital secured a stake in Morrisons' rival Asda, it would be unlikely to top the long-standing record set with KKR's £11bn buyout of Alliance Boots back in 2007.

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