British supermarket chain Sainsbury's has secured the acquisition of 24 Co-operative outlets.
The £83 million (AUD$181.8 million) deal includes 22 Somerfield units and two Co-operative stores from with a total net selling area of 236,000 square feet.
When concluding the agreement with its rival, business representatives from Sainsbury's could have used a secure virtual data room - which would allow the tracking of document usage - to perform due diligence.
Chief executive of Sainsbury's, Justin King, commented: "We are delighted to acquire these stores which are an excellent addition to our store estate and we are pleased to welcome 1,400 new colleagues to Sainsbury's."
Subject to approval from the Office of Fair Trading, rebranding of the new outlets should be completed by August 2009.
Aside from its chain of supermarkets, the company's other main interest is Sainsbury's Bank, which was launched alongside Halifax Bank of Scotland in 1997.
