UK supermarket chain Morrisons is to acquire 16 former Netto UK stores from rival Asda for £28.1 million.

UK supermarket chain Morrisons is to acquire 16 former Netto UK stores from rival Asda for £28.1 million.

Owned by US retail giant Walmart, Asda arranged to purchase Netto’s UK stores from the Danish retailer Dansk Supermarked in May 2010, but subsequently agreed to sell 47 of the Netto stores to comply with competition concerns raised by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in September.

The current deal is conditional upon the completion of Asda’s acquisition of Netto UK, pending final approval by the OFT.

Morrisons currently has 437 stores across the UK, and the acquired stores will be converted to the Morrisons brand.