Tesco buys the largest British wholesale food company

The Tesco supermarket chain announced a deal to merge with Booker, the UK’s largest wholesale food retailer on Friday.

Tesco is valuing Booker at 3.7 billion pounds (4.6 billion USD) under the terms of the deal, representing 205.3p per share or a 12 percent premium on Thursday’s closing price.

Northamptonshire-based Booker is the UK’s biggest wholesale food supplier and sells branded and white label goods to over 500,000 customers across the UK, such as convenience stores Budgens and Londis, catering companies, pubs, and restaurants like Byron Burger, Wagamama, Carluccios, and Prezzo.

Booker had sales of 5 billion pounds in 2016 and made a pre-tax profit of 150 million pounds. (Kertész Róbert, MTI)