Superquinn’s suitors are queuing up

SUPERQUINN has denied that it is up for sale, but has confirmed it has received expressions of interest from British retailers.

Press speculation in recent days has suggested that the Irish supermarket’s owners — Select Retail Holdings (SRH) — is considering selling the company after enlisting investment bank Goldman Sachs to handle takeover proposals from British retail chains.

A spokesperson for SRH/Superquinn said yesterday that while interest has been shown from Britain, Superquinn’s owners of “are not actively looking to sell the business”.

They also confirmed Goldman Sachs’ involvement, but said that both details — rather than stemming from any new takeover offer — instead relate to the selling of property developer Bernard McNamara’s 14.5% stake in the chain last March.

At that stage, Goldman Sachs, which has a long-standing business relationship with Superquinn’s owners, was put in charge of dealing with parties interested in acquiring Mr McNamara’s stake. However, interest was expressed in buying the business as a whole, rather than a shareholding.

Other shareholders in Superquinn include property consultants David Courtney and Bernard Doyle, hotelier Terry Sweeney, financier Simon Cantrell, accountant Kieran Ryan and Superquinn chief executive Simon Burke.

In terms of possible buyers, industry sources have suggested that British supermarket chain Waitrose could be a frontrunner.

Owned by larger British retail group John Lewis (which is, itself, looking to open its eponymous department store model here this year), Waitrose already has a relationship with Superquinn, which has been supplying its ready-meal ranges for some time.

However, the likes of Sainsbury and Asda — two British chains with operations already in Northern Ireland — have also been mentioned as possible suitors. Some quarters have it that Asda (owned by US retail giant, Wal-Mart) could be the most likely to buy Superquinn, if a sale process is triggered — a rumour prompted by Asda’s long-running talk of expansion into the republic. Tesco, the biggest supermarket retailer here, has also been mentioned as an interested party.

Superquinn is currently profitable — after a number of years in the red — and saw its revenues go from €580 million in 2006 to €620m last year.

It also has a healthy share of the Irish supermarket sector, controlling about 7.3% in the republic.