Morrisons is being sued by a subsidiary of French giant Bouygues, over its £2.5bn deal to sell its petrol forecourts.
In the wake of the sale, the supermarket abandoned a EV charging agreement it had signed in 2019 with Equans EV Solutions, which is owned by the French conglomerate, which gave it exclusive rights to install chargers at 273 of its forecourts.
The firm is now seeking to block the £2.5bn forecourts disposal as it sues Morrisons for alleged breach of contract, reports The Sunday Times.
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The sale will help to shore up Morrisons’ balance sheet, which was loaded with £6.6bn of debt following its 2022 acquisition by private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, which also owns MFG.
The opportunity to install EV chargers was part of the reason MFG was attracted to the forecourt deal. Equans had already installed chargers at 260 Morrisons sites by the time the supermarket abandoned the deal.
In a claim filed at the High Court, the Bouygues-owned firm described the grocer’s decision as “arbitrary, irrational and capricious”.
Equans is seeking an order to block Morrisons from selling the forecourts to MFG, which was completed last month, and wants the court to affirm its exclusivity rights over the sites. It is also seeking damages from the supermarket.
However, the newspaper reports that Morrisons has claimed that no valid contract existed between the pair and that Equans had consistently failed to meet target service levels, which had incurred significant losses for the supermarket, which it wants to be compensated for.
Morrisons will file its defence by the end of the month.
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