Morrisons to sell £600m of fisheries and food factories

Sales at Morrisons slumped 9.5 per cent in the 12 weeks to May 15NATHAN STIRK/GETTY IMAGES

The private equity owners of Morrisons are sounding out buyers for a portfolio of its warehouses, fisheries and food manufacturing plants that is expected to fetch more than £600 million.

Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) is marketing the assets in a proposed sale-and-leaseback transaction designed to drive up returns from its £7 billion leveraged buyout of Morrisons.

While suitors have not yet been told the composition of the portfolio, it is expected to include about two dozen assets. Morrisons owns nine distribution centres and 20 food manufacturing sites across the Midlands, the north and in Scotland. Sources said the assets were being marketed by BNP Paribas and Knight Frank.

In April, Morrisons warned a slowdown in spending and a surge in inflation threatened profits. Sales