Safeway has confirmed in its latest Q4 2013 earnings report that it has been involved in discussions relating to a potential sale of the entire company. The retailer has not yet reached any final agreement, nor will these discussions ensure a sale.
A press release from the company states, “Although the discussions are ongoing, the company has not reached an agreement on a transaction, and there can be no assurance that these discussions will lead to an agreement or a completed transaction. The company will not comment further on these discussions at this time.”
Safeway has already been involved in various sales over the past year, including selling divisions in Canada and Chicago. Who’s interested in pursuing the whole company?
“We are pleased with the progress we made in 2013,” said Robert Edwards, President and CEO. “Strategies to grow sales and improve operating profit dollars have begun to produce results. In 2013, we generated our best volume growth since 2006, and we had our best identical-store sales growth in the last five years.”
In its earnings release, Safeway also announced it will be distributing the remaining 37.8 million shares it owns of Blackhawk Network Holdings (approximately 72.2% of the outstanding Blackhawk shares) to Safeway stockholders. In addition, Safeway will monetize its investment in Casa Ley, the fifth largest food and general merchandise retailer in Mexico based on sales.
For Q4 2013, Safeway reported its net earnings at $100 million from $170.7 million in Q4 2012. Sales and other revenue was $11.3 billion from $11.2 billion in Q4 2012.
In after-hours trading at the close of the NYSE, Safeway was up approximately $0.60 after news broke of its potential sale. It'll be interesting to see how the market reacts with a full day of trading ahead.
Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow as we continue our coverage on the potential sale of Safeway.
