How the buyout of Morrisons turned into a costly blunder | FT Due Diligence

Beloved British grocer WM Morrisons' unencumbered property portfolio made it a top leveraged buyout target for some of the world's biggest banks. But as the FT’s Robert Smith explains, when market sentiment changed, the deal ended up costing them hundreds of millions of pounds.

#buyout #supermarket



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[anthonygee]

I can't help having a warm glow of pleasure on hearing that Goldman's and others have 'taken a hit'.

[MARTINA-gctq]

Each employee has a discount card plus two more which the employee gives to a family member or friend. As of 1st March Morrisons have pulled the two extra cards. The Morrisons staff union has not said a word. Morrisons is now the second most expensive supermarket in the UK with the lowest paid workers.

[terrylomax]

Couldn't have happened to a more deserving bunch of asset strippers, redundancy planners and basically interfering shysters. They turned Morrisons into a debt-ridden shadow of its former self overnight. Glad to say they tripled the value of my shares in less than a week. Long may they suffer

[anonUK]

Due diligence may have been an idea. Morrisons' USP was being a salt of the earth, Yorkshire family business. Once that went away, to be replaced by the greatest financial vultures in the world (and I'm not just talking about GS), what's stopping their customers from going over to Lidl or Tescos? Also, thanks to the concentration of wealth at the top, leading to a massive cost of living crisis for the 99%, everyone needs to save money- so Morrisons would be on the slide in any case.

[davidpearson]

We used to shop at Morrison I know all supermarket prices have gone up but Morrisons is now more expensive than M&S at much lower quality

[goddam]

Thats why my local morrisons went down hill rapidly . Hearing that Goldmen sachs took a big hit made me grin [Greedy Bastards ]

[kenhardy]

Our Local Morrisons has gone quickly Downhill since the change in management, some shelves of basic items are empty, most manned checkouts have been replaced and customer service has deteriorated beyond belief. Sorry Morrisons but I’m going elsewhere.

[OldeJanner]

So that's zero home owned supermarkets in England these days.

Can someone explain how that represents any benefit to the country at large?

Ditto all utilities!

Ditto the media!

Ditto our docks!

Ditto every lost job to outsourcing, especially after foreign takeovers!!!

[JohnSmall]

We use Morrison's because it's just across the road from us.

It's very clear that it's going downhill under new management.

We used to have a fishmonger, butcher and deli in the store. Because none of the other supermarkets had that then it would attract people. But they got rid of it, so now the only reason for us to use Morrison's is convenience, not product range or quality. We have to walk further to our local butchers, and even further, a whole 10 minutes walk, to our local fishmonger.

And now they're upsetting everyone in the street by putting up Iron Curtain style cameras to catch motorists who park too long. Which might catch 1 person a week because there's little incentive to stay.

[davidoldboy]

As soon as I heard they were taking the dates off milk and expecting customers to 'sniff' it I left, typical accountants policy

[nicholasdickens]

My heart … just doesn’t bleed for these vultures.

[incurableromantic]

It seems to be an iron law of the universe that leveraged buyouts result in the company going downhill.

[seangotts]

morrisons is too expensive now in the uk for most familys and there slowly loosing there customer base to lidle and aldi.. also the american corps think they can treat uk workers same as in the states .. yeah that didnt go well a lot jut told them to stick it and walked out ... and now there finding it harder and harder to get good staff

[johnjamieson]

Not surprised at all. Loading Morrisons with piles of leveraged debt was a stupid idea. Serves them right!

[budstep]

Thanks for the video--a little bit longer with more detail would be appreciated!

[murrayscott]

Goldman Sax is a bank wow. I thought it was as a social club for people who what to run government treasures, central banks, international non elected organizations, hedge funds and be senators and governors. Interesting, thanks for sharing .

[mauricetucker]

Most European countries don't let theses buyouts happen in national interest

[aritragupta]

Leveraged buyouts almost always include piling a humungous debt load onto the acquired company's balance sheet, mass firings in a search for immediate profits and asset stripping.
Which is what makes this great news.
And for those thinking that Goldman Sachs will find a way to pass on the losses to consumers - I believe this was their investment banking division which is legally obligated to be completely separate and independent of the consumer banking division.

[MaryLinda]

My mom and I get big profit from our investment with Ms. Chalian Shantae, her skills on set are amazing.

[lesmarsden]

Nice to see the banks taking a hit, but unfortunately their loss is ALWAYS ultimately passed on to the consumer. Which is why ‘the markets’ and capitalism is always win-win for the financial sector. The only form of gambling where it’s impossible to lose.