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Bestway Group has announced it has agreed to acquire a total of 80,792,512 shares in Sainsbury’s, representing 3.45% of Sainsbury’s issued share capital.
Bestway Group has said it intends to hold its shares in Sainsbury’s for investment purposes and “looks forward to supporting the executive management team”.
Bestway Group has also confirmed that it is not considering an offer for Sainsbury’s.
Costcutter founder Colin Graves told The Telegraph that it had previously discussed making a bid for the supermarket with Bestway managing director Dawood Pervez.
He said: “Bestway’s stakebuilding in Sainsbury’s did not come as a complete surprise to me. I had dinner with Dawood Pervez 10 months ago and he asked for advice on what to do with the wider Bestway business. His concerns were that the group needed pulling together rather than being fragmented as it is currently.
“I told him that the simplest answer would be to go out and to take Sainsbury’s private and combine the two groups. And it now looks like Bestway has taken my advice.”
