Walker Morris has advised Danish Group Dansk Supermarked A/S on the sale of its subsidiary Netto Foodstores Limited to Asda. The deal is worth £778m and will see Asda, the Leeds-based group, which is owned by US giant Walmart, convert the 194 Netto stores in the UK to small Asda stores by next summer.
The transaction remains subject to regulatory approval from the Office of Fair Trading later this summer and, until official approval is granted, all Netto stores in the UK will continue operations as usual under existing management.
Netto was established in the UK in 1990 and has its headquarters in West Yorkshire. It is the market leader in Denmark and among the fastest growing discounters in Germany, Poland and Sweden.
Ian Gilbert, the corporate partner who led the legal team at Walker Morris said:
"We have had a close relationship with Netto, having advised them when they first entered the UK market in 1990. It is therefore very pleasing that we have been able to assist them on this exit which is demonstrably a good deal for both Netto and Asda. The transaction brought out the essence of Walker Morris - great team work within a committed multi disciplinary team delivering a high value, complex transaction against a challenging timetable."
The Walker Morris team was led by corporate partner Ian Gilbert and property partner Andrew Moodie, with the team including Vikki Hoyle and Mark Whittaker in corporate, Jeremy Scholes who advised on competition, Robert Goldstone and Laura Phillips in commercial, Bernadette Pope in tax, Tom Peel in construction and Austin Judson and Andrew Hall in property.