MINNEAPOLIS—Supervalu Inc., based here, has completed the $3.3 billion sale of five of its store brands to Cerberus Capital Management L.P.
The sale of Albertsons, Acme, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s and Star Marketstores and related Osco and Sav-on in-store pharmacies includes $100 million in cash and $3.2 billion in debt assumption. The operations for the banners changed on March 22.
Symphony Investors, a Cerberus-led investor consortium, has also become Supervalu’s largest shareholder with 21.2 percent of total outstanding common shares.With the transaction complete, Supervalu now consists of three business units made up of Independent Business, a food wholesaler which serves nearly 2,000 stores across the country; Save-A-Lot, a hard discount grocery chain in the United States with more than 1,300 stores; and five, strong regional retail banners: Cub, Farm Fresh, Shoppers, Shop ‘n Save and Hornbacher’s.
Robert Miller, president and chief executive officer of Albertsons LLC, has been named Supervalu’s new non-executive chairman of the board replacing Wayne Sales, who has served as executive chairman since August 2012.
Sam Duncan, Supervalu’s president and CEO, says in a statement that Supervalu will continue as a wholesale grocery provider in America serving nearly 2,000 independent retailers in 43 states. “We plan to continue growing our hard discount Save-A-Lot format that includes over 1,300 stores nationwide; and we will operate five, strong regional retail banners,” he says.