Musgrave still keen to buy UK chain Londis

Musgrave has had talks with the consultants hired by convenience franchise, Londis, to advise it on a sale of the business, the Irish wholesaler's chief executive, Mr Seamus Scally, said yesterday.

The company withdrew its £40 million sterling (€57 million) bid for the UK-based Londis chain last month. Shareholder-franchisees objected to the fact that under its terms, four directors stood to share £20 million, while members would receive £10,000 each. Londis' board and shareholders have since called in consultants KPMG to advise on the options facing the company.

Mr Scally yesterday stressed that Musgrave still wants to buy the chain. "We're still very much in the hunt, and want to stay in there," he said. "We've made a very firm and a very fair offer for the business.

"We're working with KPMG and we'll be guided by the process that KPMG will bring to the table in order to arrange an orderly sale of this business.

"We have had one meeting with KPMG, and we are pleased that there will be a structured approach and we are looking forward to working with KPMG," Mr Scally added.

"It's at a very early stage in the process and they (KPMG) were interested to hear about our interest and what the nature of that interest is, and they'll come back and tell us how they expect the process to run from here on in."

Mr Scally was in Dublin yesterday to address the launch of PricewaterhouseCooper's (PWC) corporate social responsibility (CSR) practice. The privately-held company is seen as a leader in this area.

He told the gathering that a recent survey by insurance group, Aon, found that the majority of the top 2,000 public and private organisations in the UK rated loss of reputation as the single biggest risk facing them.

The new division's senior manager, Ms Niamh Whooley, warned that "doing nothing is not an option". She said analysts increasingly regarded good practice in CSR as a safeguard against otherwise unquantifiable risks.

A PWC survey of 1,000 Irish and global chief executives last year found more companies have accepted that corporate social responsibility can be good for business.

The study found that 79 per cent of them believed it was vital to profitability, the same number said reputation and brand were key to their approach to the issue, while 63 per cent believed that it improved shareholder value.