Albertsons continues to blame Kroger for their failed merger as the grocers prepare to fight in court over a termination fee Kroger refuses to pay, according to a Saturday court filing.
Albertsons’ response to Kroger’s counterclaims comes after the grocer sued Kroger for allegedly breaching the merger contract between them. Kroger countered back in March that Albertsons concocted a secret plan to undermine its strategy to get regulatory clearance for the deal, making Albertsons ineligible for the $600 million termination fee.
Kroger’s allegations that Albertsons and C&S Wholesale Grocers, the planned divestiture buyer, plotted to undermine the merger are “pure fiction,” Albertsons said in the Saturday court document.
Albertsons continues to claim that it worked to boost the merger’s chance of success but that Kroger ignored its attempts.
“Albertsons generally denies the baseless retelling of events undergirding Kroger’s Counterclaims, which defies reality and is plainly designed to divert attention from Kroger’s own misconduct,” according to the filing.
Albertsons also took a swing at Kroger’s ex-CEO Rodney McMullen, who abruptly resigned in March after an ethics investigation. Albertsons claimed that McMullen excluded certain stores from the divestiture package “because he understood they were valuable.”
In response to Albertsons’ filing on Saturday, Kroger said Albertsons “continues to deflect responsibility for its actions that ultimately undermined the proposed merger.”
“We look forward to presenting our case in court where we intend to pursue our claims to the full extent of the law,” Kroger said in an emailed statement.
