The Catch-up: Sainsbury's and Asda promise to cut prices by 10%

What happened?

Sainsbury’s and Asda have promised to slash their prices by around 10% on everyday items as they scrabble to gain approval for their proposed multi-billion pound merger. In a joint statement today, the supermarket giants said a merger would allow them to pass on £1bn in annual cost savings to shoppers.

Sounds good, right?

Yes, but it’s not all about being nice to consumers. The two retailers, who own a combined 2,800 supermarkets, are struggling to convince the UK’s top competition watchdog about the merits of their £7.3bn takeover plan. It is designed to create a massive shopping giant with enough heft to challenge Tesco, Aldi and Lidl. But the competition regulator threw a spanner in the works by ruling last month that the merger would push up prices and be bad for consumers – something Sainsbury’s CEO described as ‘outrageous’.

Sainsbury’s is clearly bending over backwards to try and make this deal go through. A final ruling is expected at the end of April but analysts and lawyers say it’s unlikely the deal will be given the green light.

Read more about this story
Full story: Sainsbury’s and Asda promise 10% price cuts (Yahoo Finance UK)
Sainsbury’s seeks to salvage deal (The Guardian)
Deal ‘extremely detrimental’ to consumers (Reuters)

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