Singaporean sovereign wealth fund joins Fortress Morrisons consortium

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Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC has joined the consortium bid led by Fortress for supermarket giant Morrisons.

Morrisons pilot new fascia

In a statement on Wednesday morning (July 28) GIC said it had joined the consortium through its investment vehicle Cambourne Life Investment as an additional co-investor for the £6.3bn recommended offer for the supermarket chain.

Cambourne currently holds 5,180,094 shares, representing approximately 0.21% of the issued share capital of Morrisons.

In the note to the City, Cambourne said it would contribute approximately 3% of the £3bn in equity being put up by Softbank-owned Fortress, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Koch Real Estate Investments (KREI).

If the bid proves successful, Fortress will own approximately 73% of Morrisons, KREI would own 22% and Cambourne around 4%.

The announcement came after Morrisons’ largest shareholder Silchester hit out at the bid on Tuesday evening.

Silchester, which owns 15.1% of the supermarket giant, said it “is not inclined to support the existing Fortress offer at the upcoming court and shareholder meeting”.

It added: “Silchester considers schemes of arrangement, with a 75% hurdle for shareholder acceptance and squeeze out, to be disadvantageous to public shareholders generally.”