Albertsons Sale OKd by Shareholders

Shareholders approved the sale of much of Albertsons Inc. to a group led by Supervalu Inc. on Tuesday, bringing Supervalu closer to its goal of being one of the nation’s largest grocers.

The votes came on the same day that Albertsons, the nation’s second-largest traditional grocer, reported that first-quarter earnings rose 67%, helped by a one-time gain for pension curtailments.

The deal gained approval from 98% of voting Albertsons shareholders and 92.6% of Supervalu shareholders. The acquisition is expected to close in June.

Supervalu led a consortium that also included drugstore chain CVS Corp., private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management and others that agreed in January to buy Albertsons for $9.7 billion in cash and stock plus assumed debt, bringing the total transaction to about $17.4 billion.

The company said it earned $167 million, or 45 cents a share, for the quarter ended May 4, versus $100 million, or 27 cents, a year ago. Sales fell slightly to $9.94 billion from $9.99 billion.

Results for the first quarter include a pretax gain of $47 million, or 8 cents a share, for planned pension curtailments approved during the quarter.

Counting only continuing operations, the company earned $166 million, or 44 cents a share, compared with $107 million, or 29 cents, a year ago.

Analysts, on average, expected per-share earnings of 25 cents on sales of $10.05 billion, according to a Thomson Financial survey.

During the quarter, the company opened eight stores, closed 18 and remodeled 20. At quarter’s end, a total of 2,461 stores were open.

Shares of Supervalu dropped 23 cents to $29.56, while Albertsons shares rose 5 cents to $25.67.