Musgrave pays £60m for Londis

CORNER shop chain Londis will finally be bought by Irish group Musgrave, after seven months of wrangling. More than 97% of shopkeepers who voted last night were in favour of the £60m deal, which nets them windfalls of around £31,000 each.

This is almost three times as much as they would have received under the original deal agreed with Musgrave last December.

Musgrave, a food wholesaler which also owns Budgens stores, will now supply Londis shopkeepers with most of their goods.

Londis adviser KPMG, which was charged with conducting the auction, says it is 'a tremendous result' for shopkeepers. It needed 75% approval for the deal to go ahead.

Another bid consortium led by former directors of convenience retailer T&S Stores had been trying to persuade shareholders to reject the Musgrave offer.

Musgrave also pipped rival bids from the Co-op and off-licence chain Thresher.