Dive Brief:

• Safeway has agreed it will hand over any money it makes from selling real-estate tied to the Casa Ley supermarket chain in Mexico, as well as some land parcels in the U.S., to shareholders. 
• The agreement comes in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of shareholders who had challenged a proposed $9.2 billion takeover of Safeway by Cerberus Capital Management LP.
• Under the terms of the settlement, Cerberus will have until 2017 to sell off Safeway's stake in the Mexican chain. 

Dive Insight:

With the lawsuit settled, there appears to be nothing left now to stop the merger. Cerberus already controls the Albertsons, Acme, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, and Star Market chains. Adding in Safeway will create a private-equity-controlled powerhouse with 2,400 stores. Only Kroger, with 2,640 stores, is larger. Consolidation like that might put considerable price pressure on vendors.

But as we noted back in October when the deal was first rumored, a debt-financed takeover "of Safeway would be a great deal for shareholders and investment bankers."