BOOKER GROUP
Like-for-like sales, ex tobacco 0.5%
There seemed no reason why Booker’s £40 million purchase of the Budgens and Londis convenience store chains, announced in May, would cause the competition authorities any problems, given their and Booker’s small combined share of a market where the big players, such as Tesco and J Sainsbury, have been expanding fast.
However, the company’s purchase of Makro, the German-owned cash-and-carry operation, in 2012 was held up by a Competition and Markets Authority inquiry that came to nothing, so you never can tell.
The latest deal has gone through without a hitch. The question for investors is whether it will be as successful as Makro, which was bought making a loss and is now contributing about £20 million a