DESPITE all the tough talk and financial muscle-flexing about his ability to bid simultaneously for retailers on both sides of the Tasman, Woolworths chief Michael Luscombe has yet to apply for approval from the local competition regulator to be involved in the Coles sale.
Speaking yesterday after announcing solid growth in third-quarter revenue, Mr Luscombe confirmed Woolies had had talks with "a wide variety of interested parties" about a possible joint offer for some assets of rival retailer Coles Group. He added the company had lodged a formal "expression of interest" for Coles's assets, a move that takes it one step closer to entering the Coles data room which is expected to be opened to other bidders this week.
Mr Luscombe, who took the top job in October, was also considering making a bid for Warehouse Group, New Zealand's biggest general merchandise retailer, in which it already owns a 10 per cent stake.
Earlier this year he applied to New Zealand's competition regulator for clearance, despite no legal requirement to do so at this stage of the process. A decision is expected later this month.
However, Woolies has yet to approach the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which yesterday confirmed it had not received an application for clearance.
Woolworths spokeswoman Claire Buchanan said there was no legal requirement to apply for clearance in Australia either as no formal bid had been made.
Coles put itself on the auction block in February after admitting it was unable to generate ambitious profits promised in the wake of earlier offers by US private equity group Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.
So far only two bidders have officially declared they are in the running for Coles, Perth's Wesfarmers, with its own $19.7 billion bid, and a consortium of six private equity firms led by KKR.
Mr Luscombe was coy about his interest in Coles, and was careful not to stray from his carefully worded script.
"I wouldn't want you to write that something dramatic has happened in the last couple of days," he said, referring to talks between the two retailers.
He declined to say whether KKR or British retailer Tesco were potential bidding partners, and was diplomatic when asked for his reaction to Wesfarmers' complaints that other potential buyers could be handicapped if Woolworths was given a confidential insight into the retailer's books.
"We will work with the ACCC or anyone else, should the process move forward," he said. "We are going down our track, other [bidders] will walk down another track, we make no judgement on whether what they are doing is good or bad or indifferent."
