BRITISH supermarket chain Morrisons declined a £5.5 billion takeover proposal from the US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), saying the offer "significantly undervalues" the firm.
CD&R confirmed it was considering a formal bid to buy Morrisons, the BBC reported.
Morrisons said in a statement it had "evaluated the conditional proposal together with its financial adviser, Rothschild & Co, and unanimously concluded that the conditional proposal significantly undervalued Morrisons and its future prospects".
Morrisons is Britain’s fourth largest grocer by sales after Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda.
Meanwhile, British takeover rules give CD&R until July 17 to come back with a firm offer.
The US firm has previously made investments in the discount shop chain B&M, from which it made more than £1bn.
