Coles Group Limited has requested that its shareholders halt trading for one day only pending an important announcement from the company, implying that the announcement might alter trading conditions.

Coles Group and its entities, including Harris Technology, Target, Kmart and Liquorland, is up for sale at the moment and major public company Wesfarmers has shown interest in purchasing the supermarket giant, which has recently garnered speculation from industry-watchers for losing money from the re-branding of its Bi-Lo supermarkets to Coles.

Only last week Weafarmers’ bid was cleared by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) which had previously opposed the proposed acquisition on the grounds that Bunnings – a Wesfarmers-owned consumer building supplies company – would be forced to compete internally with Target and Kmart’s hardware, gardening, lighting, tools and electrical products divisions, and possibly lower its prices.

If Wesfarmers is successful in its bid for Coles Group, the company will “reinvigorate” the struggling retailer in three ways:

1. Structural: Three new divisions will be created – Food, Liquor and Convenience, Big Box Retailing (Bunnings and Officeworks) and Target.
2. Value creation opportunities: a number of initiatives have been proposed to increase earnings, including reducing overheads, savings on supply chains, and lift supermarket sales momentum.
3. Business-specific initiatives: a detailed strategic review of Kmart will be undertaken while Wesfarmers comes up with ways to optimise shareholder value.

The Coles Group Board will offer its shareholders a mixture of shares and cash to the tune of around $18 billion, according to the Australian Financial Review. There are no rival bidders at this time.