Market Basket fielding multiple buyout offers: Report

The board of directors of Demoulas Super Markets on Friday was fielding several offers to buy the company, the Boston Globe reported Friday.

The chain has engaged J.P. Morgan to help it evaluate strategic alternatives according to the report, which was based on anonymous sources. The report said bids from “supermarket rivals and other investors” valued the 71-store chain between $2.8 billion and $3.3 billion.

Those bids evidently were made before this week’s offer from shareholder and former president Arthur T. Demoulas to buy the shares he doesn’t already own. It was unclear whether the board was also reviewing that offer Friday.

The board meeting took place Friday morning in Boston while hundreds of workers gathered at a Market Basket store parking lot in Tewksbury, Mass., for a rally to support the reinstatement of Arthur T. Demoulas. Workers have been holding such events for a week while slowing deliveries to stores.

The Globe report noted the Demoulas family, which has battled for control of the chain for decades, had previously discussed an offer from Arthur T. Demoulas to buy out his cousin’s shares, but that the effort dissolved over disagreements on a price.