Dow Jones reports that while there is considerable speculation in the marketplace that the UK’s Tesco is looking at the possibility of taking over Royal Ahold, executives with the Dutch-owned and embattled retailer declined to comment on the possibility.
While Ahold's interim chairman, Henny de Ruiter, has said in the past that he didn’t believe that selling the company was the only way to rescue it following revelations of accounting irregularities that led to a half-billion dollar overstatement of profits, this does not seemed to have slowed down the speculation.
In other Ahold-related news, the Chilean retail group Cencosud reportedly is negotiating for a $100 million bank loan that will allow it to purchase the Santa Isabel supermarket chain that currently is owned by Ahold.
While Ahold's interim chairman, Henny de Ruiter, has said in the past that he didn’t believe that selling the company was the only way to rescue it following revelations of accounting irregularities that led to a half-billion dollar overstatement of profits, this does not seemed to have slowed down the speculation.
In other Ahold-related news, the Chilean retail group Cencosud reportedly is negotiating for a $100 million bank loan that will allow it to purchase the Santa Isabel supermarket chain that currently is owned by Ahold.
- KC's View:
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It seems a lot more likely that Ahold will try to salvage itself by selling off parts of its portfolio, like the Chilean business, rather than selling the whole thing.
However, there may be other pressures at work here, pressures that we don’t yet know about.
In fact, it is highly likely that there is internal debate taking place at Ahold about all of these issues. It’ll just take some time for it all to play out.
