Albertsons ACI -1.92% Cos. Inc. said Monday its board has started a strategic review to consider potential transactions and other moves, less than two years after the supermarket chain’s initial public offering.
Albertsons said the review would consider potential deals, ways the company could return capital to shareholders and other alternatives in an effort to expand its business and improve value for its shareholders.
The Boise, Idaho-based company, which runs more than 2,270 stores, said it has retained bankers from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG to advise on the review. The operator of the Safeway and Jewel-Osco chains said it hasn’t set a timetable for the review.
Albertsons’s strategic review comes after the company went public in summer 2020, following years of unsuccessful attempts. Its stock is up nearly 90% since then, though it has been relatively flat so far in 2022.
The Covid-19 pandemic has boosted sales for Albertsons and other U.S. supermarkets as American consumers have cooked more at home. Albertsons, the nation’s second biggest grocer behind Kroger Co. , previously said it has gained market share versus competitors and posted strong sales over the last two years. In January, Albertsons lifted its outlook for sales and profit in the current fiscal year.
The grocer, which had been behind competitors on e-commerce efforts, has expanded its pickup and delivery services during the pandemic. Albertsons in February partnered with delivery company DoorDash Inc. to offer deliveries of groceries in under 30 minutes.
Albertsons in recent years has worked to centralize how its divisions buy products and has remodeled stores to dedicate more space to fast-growing fresh departments. It has sold its real estate and leased it back, a move executives said would help pay down debt. It has added new executives, including Chief Financial Officer Sharon McCollam and Chief Executive Officer Vivek Sankaran, and grew its private-label business.
Private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, which invested in Albertsons in 2006, holds about a 31% stake in the company, according to FactSet. Cerberus merged Albertsons with Safeway Inc. in 2015, and investors tried unsuccessfully then to take the company public. In 2018, Albertsons struck a deal to go public by acquiring most of drugstore chain Rite Aid Corp., but the companies walked away from the deal later that year due to investor pushback.
Cerberus didn’t have an immediate comment.
Shares of Albertsons were up about 9% in after-hours trading. The stock closed Monday at $29.15 a share, down 1.9%.
—Robert Barba contributed to this article.
Write to Jaewon Kang at [email protected]
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