Musgrave's €94 million buyout of store chain nets British grocers

NEARLY 2,000 shopkeepers in Britain's Londis convenience store chain were yesterday looking forward to a €47,000 payout after they voted overwhelmingly in favour of a €94 million takeover.

More than 97% of shareholders approved the offer by Musgrave, at an extraordinary general meeting in Birmingham.

The move will see Musgrave take over Londis's wholesale and distribution arm, in which the shopkeepers are currently shareholders. Musgrave group managing director Seamus Scally told the meeting: "All I can do is pledge that we will return that support in the coming years".

He added: "We can only go from strength to strength if we work together, and I have every confidence we can do that."

Today's vote ends a six-month bidding process, which had to be restarted after Musgrave's original £40 million offer was withdrawn when it emerged that four Londis executives stood to earn £20 million because of a clause in their contracts. The deal means the directors will share a one-off payment of £2 million and gives each of the shopkeepers in the chain £31,645 in two payments in August and 12 months later provided they maintain their current trading levels.

Although just 2% of shareholders were against the deal, there was some concern voiced about Musgrave's commitments to the Londis brand and issues such as the expansion of chilled distribution and the introduction of electronic scanning at tills.