Albertsons ticks lower amid FTC's Lina Khan comments on supermarket deals
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Albertsons (NYSE:ACI) ticked down 0.5% amid some comments FTC Chair Lina Khan made about the planned $25 billion Kroger (NYSE:KR) deal at a town meeting in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
Khan attended a listening session in Las Vegas along with Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, where some residents were voicing their opposition to the planned supermarket mega deal, according to an 8NewsNow.com report on Wednesday.
Khan talked about her skepticism toward some grocery deals, including Albertsons (ACI) acquisition of Safeway in 2015, where the stores that were divested eventually went bankrupt. Nevada, along with at least 16 other states, are investigating the combination.
Khan's comments come after Albertsons (ACI) shares rallied 5% last week after Kroger (KR) and Albertsons (ACI) announced an agreement to sell 413 stores for $1.9 billion to C&S Wholesale Grocers as the supermarkets try to win U.S. antitrust approval. 
"Agencies have been unlikely to actually follow through," Khan said during an interview with 8 News Now after the session. "If thereâs a merger that is presenting a lot of risk of reducing competition, may even create a monopoly, you know, we need to weigh those risks, especially given that some of these remedies in the past have failed."
Khan pointed out that if the deal is challenged, judges typically take 6 to 8 months to hand down a decision, according to the report.
"I think we always want to make sure we're applying the skepticism that's warranted when firms are saying allow us to merge and eliminate the competition," according to an account of the event by KTNV.com. "I think enforcers have been burned by that. Communities have been burned by that."
Khan's comments also come after the FTC on Wednesday added a closed-door meeting for next Thursday to consider law enforcement matters. Some investors speculate that the meeting could be to consider the Albertsons/Kroger deal or potentially an antitrust action against Amazon (AMZN), which has been repeatedly reported in the press.

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