Sen. Warren, others ask Cerberus to halt $4B Albertsons dividend (NYSE:ACI)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and 4 different lawmakers are asking personal fairness agency Cerberus to halt the cost of a $4 billion Albertsons (NYSE:ACI) dividend linked to its take care of Kroger (NYSE:KR).

“The proposed Kroger-Albertsons merger would lead to a multi-billion greenback windfall in your agency, leaving shoppers and employees to pay the value,” Sanders and the opposite lawmakers wrote in a Thursday letter to Cerberus CEO Steve Feinberg. “The $4 billion dividend payout to your organization and to different shareholders represents an instantaneous menace.”

The Warren letter comes as a Washington state choose on Thursday granted a brief restraining order blocking cost of Albertsons (ACI) dividend. The subsequent listening to on a possible preliminary injunction is ready for Nov. 10 in Washington state.

Albertsons (ACI) shares rose 2.3% after the information in Washington state.

A number of state attorneys basic have filed a joint go well with in opposition to Albertsons (ACI) to dam the dividend cost. Washington D.C., California, Illinois attorneys basic collectively introduced Wednesday they’ve sued the grocery chain on the grounds that it might damage union workers, shoppers, and the flexibility of the corporate to function with a decrease money stability.

Warren final month known as for the Federal Commerce Fee to dam Kroger’s (KR) deliberate $25 billion acquisition of rival grocery store chain Albertsons (ACI).

Albertsons (ACI) stated in a press release late Thursday that it plans to hunt to overturn the TRO “as shortly as doable as a result of the non permanent order was primarily based on the wrong assertion that cost of the particular dividend would impair its capability to compete” whereas its proposed take care of Kroger is below an antitrust overview.

Albertsons “intends to argue vigorously primarily based on the factual file that there’s merely no foundation to proceed restraining the cost of the particular dividend,” the grocery store chain stated within the assertion.