(Alliance News) - The billionaire Issa brothers are planning to scoop up McColl's Retail Group PLC after the convenience store chain collapsed into administration, reported Sky News on Friday.
Petrol station retailer EG Group, whose shareholders are identical to those of grocer Asda, is putting the finishing touches to a takeover of McColl's through a pre-pack administration, Sky reported. This proposal would beat out a rival one from supermarket chain Morrisons.
McColl's lenders are said to have demanded the immediate repayment of their loans, Sky reported, to which EG Group is said to have agreed. Meanwhile, the proposal from Morrisons would have seen the loans taken on by the grocer and repaid over several years.
However, Sky said there was speculation that Morrisons, which already has an partnership with McColl's, could seek an injunction to the EG Group plan.
https://news.sky.com/story/petrol-giant-eg-group-swoops-for-stricken-mccolls-as-administrators-called-in-12606704
The board of McColl's on Friday said it had been left with "no choice" but to be placed into administration, after the failure of financing talks with lenders.
McColl's appointed PriceWaterhouseCoopers as administrators, expecting that the firm will sell the business to a third-party purchaser "as soon as possible".
The development followed a Sky News report earlier on Friday that said Morrisons had proposed a rescue deal on Thursday, to prevent the convenience store operator from falling into insolvency.
A spokesperson for Morrisons said: "We put forward a proposal that would have avoided today's announcement that McColl's is being put into administration, kept the vast majority of jobs and stores safe, as well as fully protecting pensioners and lenders. For thousands of hardworking people and pensioners, this is a very disappointing, damaging and unnecessary outcome."
By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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Mccoll's (MCLS)