Former T&S Stores chiefs and Iceland's Kaupthing Bank said they would match a recommended £60m sterling bid for Britain's Londis Group.
KPMG Corporate Finance, which is handling the sale of Londis, has already rejected the approach. It choose the Cork-based Musgrave group as the preferred bidder last month over a number of offers. The former T&S bosses want to scupper that deal.
This latest rival bid also the Londis chain at £60m, but Londis shopkeepers - who are its shareholders - will retain a 60-40 majority ownership and will each receive £31,000 split between cash and shares.
The rival bid plan is that existing management will be replaced by Geoff Purdy as CEO, a former marketing director or T&S convenience stores and David Crelin as finance director. Together with Kaupthing Bank, the pair will own bid vehicle Lancelot.
'We haven't been recommended by KPMG but we want shareholders to be aware that we're here,' commented Purdy. 'KPMG wanted a straight forward sale, but there is an alternative,' he added.
Shareholders are awaiting their opportunity to vote on the deal agreed with Ireland's largest food and grocery wholesaler Musgrave, which would net each shareholder £31,266. Details of the offer is expected to be posted later this week.
Londis have said that Musgrave's offer was not the highest it had received, but it provided the best long term future for the group given increasing competition in the sector. If the bid is accepted, then this would mean that Musgrave would become the biggest single supplier to independent retailers in the UK.
Londis is made up of 1,919 shopkeeper owners, who each bought a share in Londis for £50. They town 2,200 Londis branded shops and use a central ordering and delivery network to operate the stores, which will remain in their hands after any sale.
Londis is trying to improve its competitiveness in the convenience store market, which has caught the eye of the big supermarket chains like Tesco and Sainburys.
