Private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) ended the auction takeover against Fortress Investment Group with a winning £7 billion bid.

Morrisons’ Board of directors accepted a £6.7 billion offer from a US private equity consortium led by Fortress in July, before backing a £7 billion offer from private equity firm CD&R, also US-based, in August. The stock market’s Takeover Panel announced that an auction involving the two companies would take place on 2nd October.

Fortress initially offered 286p per Morrisons ordinary share, while CD&R offered 287p – which amounts to an offer of roughly £7 billion. The final offer will be voted on by shareholders on 19th October.

Chairman of Morrisons, Andrew Higginson, said that the offer by CD&R represented “excellent value for shareholders” while equally protected “the fundamental character of Morrisons for all stakeholders.”

Higginson went on to say that the buying company has a “strong record of developing and growing the businesses in which they invest” and that it shares the current management’s “vision and ambition for Morrisons.”