J Sainsbury and Asda have promised £1bn of price cuts a year and store disposals in an effort to convince the competition watchdog to approve their plan to merge.
In a desperate fight to save their proposed £12bn tie-up, Sainsbury’s has also offered to cap the amount of profit it makes on petrol for five years, while both retailers have provided further detail on why they think the merger would be good for consumers.
However, in a sign of how much is at stake, the two grocery groups have also accused the Competition and Markets Authority of making basic mathematical, economic and legal errors and stated that they “strongly disagreed” with the regulator’s findings.
The Telegraph reports that Sainsbury’s is believed to have told the CMA it was willing to sell about 150 supermarkets and a number of petrol forecourts to assuage the watchdog’s competition concerns.
Click here for the full Times article (£)
Click here for the full Telegraph article (£)
