London, Feb. 4 - Former chiefs at Wal-Mart Stores Inc's Asda, Allan Leighton and Archie Norman, have been approached by the private equity consortium mulling a multi-billion pound takeover bid for J Sainsbury PLC, according to the Mail on Sunday.
The consortium - consisting of CVC Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Blackstone - want the pair, who engineered a spectacular revival at Asda in the late 1990s, to lead any such bid. It would retain Justin King - a former Asda colleague of Norman and Leighton - as chief executive, the report says, without citing its sources.
Leighton, who was chief executive of Asda from 1996 to 1999, is now chairman of Royal Mail and Philip Green's Bhs. Norman was Asda chief executive from 1991 to 1996 and chairman from 1996 to 1999. After a lackluster spell in politics as a Conservative Party member of parliament, he is now working at his private equity vehicle Aurigo, which launched early last year but has yet to do a deal, the report says.
Separately, the Sunday Telegraph says the consortium is planning a high-risk strategy to transform Sainsbury into a hypermarket operator with vast new non-food ranges, such as clothing and electronics, to compete with Tesco PLC (TSCO.LN).
Sales from Sainsbury's general merchandise lines are predicted to hit GBP700 million by March 2008. By contrast, Tesco's annual non-food sales in the U.K. are worth GBP6.5 billion and account for 20% of its sales, the report says.