Morrisons cashes out convenience stores

Morrisons said 140 of the stores would be sold for £25 million (34.4 million euros, $38.4 million) to a team led by retail entrepreneur Mike Greene and backed by Greybull Capital LLP. That will leave it with five M local outlets, some of which will be converted into small supermarkets.

The company said a review launched in March concluded that to make M local profitable would require significant further investment and expansion.

"Convenience is a large and growing channel in UK food retailing ... but M local was unable to scale," Morrisons chief executive David Potts said in a statement, adding that the company was open to other opportunities in the convenience sector.

The company said the M local stores to be sold suffered a £36 million loss in the 2014-2015 reporting year, and that their disposal would cause another £30 million in losses.

The sale comes as Morrisons and other leading British supermarket chains are trying to restructure to meet the challenge from low price rivals like Aldi and Lidl.

Tesco, Britain's largest supermarket chain, agreed Monday to sell its South Korean unit Homeplus to a consortium led by private equity firm MBK Partners for more than £4.0 billion.