Sainsbury’s, Morrisons held multibillion-pound merger talks

Sainsbury's entered preliminary talks with Morrisons between November 2025 and February 2026 and walked away in February. A combination would hold 23.6% of the UK grocery market against Tesco's 27.8%, with Sainsbury's at 15.2% and Morrisons at 8.4%. The CMA blocked Sainsbury's £7.3bn bid for Asda in 2019. Morrisons, bought by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in 2021 in a deal worth about £10bn including debt, saw net debt rise from £7.1bn to £7.5bn in the year to October 2025. Rami Batiéh, overseeing its turnaround, said the work is delivering a "broad-based improvement." Aldi and Lidl together account for 19.3% of grocery sales. Sainsbury's sold Argos to Swift Partners for £120m in July after buying it for £1.4bn a decade earlier. JOE.co.uk stresses industry talk of inevitable consolidation and Morrisons' openness to a deal. No right-leaning outlet coverage is in the record. Both sides declined to comment in the reporting. The record does not establish any later restart of talks.