A Qatari investment fund is thought to be the mystery buyer of a $2.8bn stake in J Sainsbury Plc, prompting new speculation of a takeover bid for the UK supermarket group.
Three Delta – whose investors include the Qatar government and Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim bin Jaber al-Thani – is understood to have acquired the 14% stake from Alliance Bernstein.
Sainsbury’s share price jumped 7% yesterday at the news of the block trade. The company refused to comment on the matter when contacted by ArabianBusiness.com.
Sources quoted by the UK’s Daily Telegraph say that while Three Delta currently has no intention of making an offer for Sainsbury, it has not ruled it out.
A recent bid for the retailer by CVC Capital Partners – thought to be worth around $20bn – was scrapped after the Sainsbury family held out for more money and opposed proposals to split off real-estate assets.
Sheikh Hamad in February said the Qatar Investment Authority, or QIA, was seeking a ‘strategic’ stake in Sainsbury and was studying how much of the company to buy, according to Bloomberg.
Qatar has been involved in other international investments recently, including the
acquisition of London’s Chelsea Barracks
by Diar Real Estate and Investment Co. earlier this month. The state-owned Qatari company bought the 13 acre property – its first major investment in Europe – from Britain’s Ministry of Defence.
In February Qatar invested in
another London property
, with the state’s Foreign Minister and First Deputy Prime Minister named backers for a $3 billion property development overlooking one of London’s royal parks – One Hyde Park.
Last month Qatar announced its state-owned fund Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), which owns Diar, is in talks to buy as much as
10% of Airbus parent EADS
, the European aerospace company. The government said the move is a part of wider efforts to diversify cash from natural gas production.
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