Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, said it was considering joining a £3 billion sterling bid battle for British supermarket chain Safeway with an all-cash counter offer.
Wal-Mart, a US discount grocer which owns Britain's third largest supermarket chain ASDA, said in a brief statement it would make a submission to the country's consumer affairs watchdog, the Office of Fair Trading, to seek clearance for a bid.
Wal-Mart, whose move was widely expected, said it would probably pitch its eventual bid below the cash-and-shares bid of 300 pence per share proposed by the country's second-biggest supermarket chain, J Sainsbury.
The Sainsbury's bid would value Safeway at about £3.2 billion, trumping an agreed all-share bid currently valued at about £2.6 billion from another rival, Wm Morrison Supermarkets.
But Wal-Mart has by far the deepest pockets and is better able to meet investors' appetite for cash.
