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By James Davey
LONDON, June 21 (Reuters) - U.S. private equity firm
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice's (CD&R) pursuit of British supermarket
group Morrisons has set up an intriguing clash of former
Tesco colleagues.
Morrisons, Britain's fourth-largest supermarket chain by
sales behind market leader Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda,
on Saturday rejected a proposed 5.5 billion pound ($7.6 billion)
cash offer from CD&R.
The offer was described by Morrisons as far too low, but
British takeover rules give CD&R until July 17 to come back with
a firm offer.
CD&R is being advised by Terry Leahy, the man who
transformed Tesco into Britain's dominant supermarket group and
the world's third-largest retailer as chief executive for 14
years to 2011.
The private equity firm's offer pits him against Morrisons
chairman Andrew Higginson and CEO David Potts, two of Leahy's
closest lieutenants at Tesco.
Higginson spent 15 years on Tesco's main board, first as
finance and strategy director and later as CEO of the company's
retailing services business before leaving in 2012.
Potts joined Tesco as a 16-year-old shelf-stacker before
working his way up to become CEO of Tesco's Irish business, its
UK retail stores business and then CEO of Tesco Asia.
He left in 2011 after being passed over for Leahy's job.
That job went to Philip Clarke, who was sacked in 2014,
shortly before an accounting scandal plunged Tesco into its
biggest crisis, raising questions over Leahy's legacy and
tarnishing his reputation.
Potts and Higginson are not the only Tesco alumni to have
ended up at Morrisons.
Finance chief Michael Gleeson and Trevor Strain, Morrisons'
chief operating officer and the hot favourite to succeed Potts,
were also at Tesco during the early stages of their careers.
(Reporting by James Davey
Editing by David Goodman)
