Apollo considers rival bid for UK supermarket Morrisons

Shares in Morrisons surged by more than 11 per cent on Monday morning

Morrisons had accepted a separate takeover offer from a consortium of investment groups at the weekend. Reuters

Shares in British supermarket Morrisons soared by more than 11 per cent on Monday morning after US private equity firm Apollo announced it is considering a takeover bid.

Morrisons, the UK's fourth-largest supermarket, had already accepted a separate offer at the weekend.

“Apollo Global Management confirms that it is, on behalf of certain investment funds managed by it, in the preliminary stages of evaluating a possible offer for Morrisons,” the private equity firm said on Monday.

“No approach has been made to the board of Morrisons. There can be no certainty that any offer will be made, nor as to the terms on which any such offer might be made.”

On Saturday, Morrisons accepted a £6.3 billion ($8.72bn) takeover offer from a group of investors.

The consortium, which comprises SoftBank-owned Fortress, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Koch Real Estate Investments, agreed to pay 252 pence per share plus a 2p special dividend.

Their proposed Morrisons takeover deal is worth a total of £9.5bn including debt.