UK SUPERMARKET CHAINS
Sainsbury’s attributes slower sales growth to price cuts, not takeover
London — Sainsbury’s, Britain’s second-biggest supermarket group, said that sales growth had slowed over the past three months because it pushed through price cuts, denying it had been distracted by its deal to take over rival Asda. Although Sainsbury’s food trading performance is lagging rivals, its shares are up more than a third in 2018 due to April’s agreed £7.3bn takeover of Walmart-owned Asda. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is considering the combination, which would create an entity that would overtake Tesco as Britain’s biggest supermarket chain. The probe is expected to be lengthy and Sainsbury’s does not expect the deal to be concluded until the second half of 2019. Some analysts have said the hiatus could have a distracting effect on both businesses, which is a charge Sainsbury’s dismissed on Wednesday. Sainsbury’s retail like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, rose 0.2% in the 16 weeks to June 30, its fiscal first quarter. While that was ahead of analysts’ avera...
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