London, October 15: Sainsbury’s, the third-biggest biggest supermarket chain in Britain, saw its share price rocket Thursday on speculation it could see a fresh takeover bid from Qatar, traders said.
The group’s shares jumped almost 20 percent to 373 pence at one stage, reaching their highest level in more than a year.
A Sainsbury’s spokesman declined to comment on the rumour.
In late afternoon deals, the shares pulled back to stand at 338.5 pence, up 8.81 percent on London’s FTSE 100 leading shares index, which was down about a third of a percent.
In July 2007, the Qatar Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund, launched a bid for Sainsbury’s through its investment vehicle Delta Two that valued the supermarket group at 10.6 billion pounds (16 billion dollars).
It abandoned the bid four months later, citing poor global credit markets and a wrangle over pensions, but kept a 26-percent stake in the company.
Speculation whirled through the London stock market on Thursday that the Qataris have considered increasing the stake and making another takeover tilt.
Despite Britain’s deep recession, which began in the second quarter of 2008, Sainsbury’s has enjoyed rising profits, boosted by sales of own-label products as cash-conscious customers seek to save money.
Sainsbury’s is the third biggest supermarket chain in Britain after Wall-Mart owned Asda and the country’s largest retailer Tesco.
—Agencies