Oct 13 (Reuters) – U.S. retailer Kroger and rival Albertsons Companies are discussing a potential merger, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
A deal could be reached this week, the news agency said, adding, however, that no final decision has been made yet.
The two companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If the talks are successful, they would result in one of the largest deals in the food retail industry in recent years.
A potential deal would value the created entity at around $47 billion (48.5 billion euros).
On Wall Street, the Albertsons title gained 5.88% at 2:38 p.m. GMT in reaction to this information, while that of Kroger fell by 0.91%. (Report Aishwarya Venugopal in Bangalore, French version Laetitia Volga, edited by Sophie Louet)