Albertsons Says It Is Ending Merger Agreement With Kroger

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Albertsons said on Dec. 11 it is ending its merger agreement with Kroger.

Albertsons said that Kroger breached the agreement the companies had reached, including by not cooperating with Albertsons.

“Rather than fulfill its contractual obligations to ensure that the merger succeeded, Kroger acted in its own financial self-interest, repeatedly providing insufficient divestiture proposals that ignored regulators’ concerns,” Tom Moriarty, Albertsons’ general counsel, said in a statement.

A Kroger spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email, “Albertsons’ claims are baseless and without merit.”

Albertsons filed a lawsuit under seal with the Delaware Chancery Court outlining its allegations against Kroger.

The proposed merger had been blocked on Tuesday by multiple judges, which found that if the merger went through, it would have anti-competitive effects.

“On balance, the Court finds that both qualitative and quantitative evidence shows that defendants engage in substantial head-to-head competition and the proposed merger would remove that competition,” Oregon District Judge Adrienne Nelson, one of the judges, said in an order. “As a result, the proposed merger is likely to lead to unilateral competitive effects and is presumptively unlawful.”

Kroger’s faults included providing insufficient documents outlining divestiture plans that ignored regulators’ concerns, according to Moriarty.

“We are disappointed that the opportunity to realize the significant benefits of the merger has been lost on account of Kroger’s willfully deficient approach to securing regulatory clearance,” he said.

The Kroger spokesperson said the allegations are not true.

“This is clearly an attempt to deflect responsibility following Kroger’s written notification of Albertsons’ multiple breaches of the agreement, and to seek payment of the merger’s break fee, to which they are not entitled,” the spokesperson said.

“Kroger looks forward to responding to these baseless claims in court. We went to extraordinary lengths to uphold the merger agreement throughout the entirety of the regulatory process and the facts will make that abundantly clear.”

Albertsons operates more than 2,200 stores across 34 states, with banners including Safeway and Acme. Kroger operates 2,750 grocery stores under various banners such as Ralphs and Harris Teeter.

Kroger reported $150 billion in revenue in 2023, while Albertsons reported $79.2 billion.

Sam Dorman contributed to this report.