Supervalu to Sell Save-A-Lot Business

Supermarket operator Supervalu Inc. said it would sell its Save-A-Lot discount grocery chain to private-equity firm Onex Corp. for about $1.37 billion.

Supervalu has been working to sell or spin off the Save-A-Lot business, a discount grocery chain that has been a bright spot for the company, as its focuses on its grocery wholesale-distributing business.

The deal with Toronto-based private-equity firm Onex is expected to close by the end of January.

Supervalu has also signed a five-year professional services agreement to provide Save-A-Lot with certain services and support functions including cloud services, merchandising technology, payroll and finance.

In its quarter ended in June, Save-A-Lot brought in 28% of Supervalu's total revenue.

Supervalu said it would use proceeds from the sale to pay down at least $750 million in debt and use the remaining to further reduce debt, improve its capital structure and other corporate purposes.

Write to Austen Hufford at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 17, 2016 07:55 ET (11:55 GMT)

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