Dairy Farm International Holdings has indicated it will be willing to sell its holdings in ailing British food discount chain Kwik Save if it receives a good offer.
Dairy Farm yesterday saw its 29.2 per cent stake in Kwik Save shrink to 11 per cent after Kwik Save announced a GBP1.3 billion (about HK$16.52 billion) merger with British supermarket chain Somerfield.
Dairy Farm finance director Edouard Ettedgui said he had given an irrevocable undertaking to accept the merger, but stressed the group's future strategy lay in Asia.
'What the future holds I don't know, but there are 21 days for any other bid to emerge,' he said.
'This is a normal clause in any sale document.' Dairy Farm said it had accepted the 'offer in relation to its shareholding in Kwik Save, subject to there being no higher competing offer made'.
'It is very much our stated strategy, which we have repeatedly said, [to] concentrate our activity in food retailing in the Asia-Pacific region,' Mr Ettedgui said.