THE fight for the Safeway supermarket chain cost Morrisons nearly £11m in advisors' fees alone, it has emerged.

The high-profile takeover battle - which at one point involved six parties - took nearly a year.

Morrisons made the initial bid for Safeway and ran out eventual winners, but was forced to pay £10.9m for professional advice during the process, its annual results showed.

The group, based in Bradford, said it had also been handicapped by problems in obtaining information on Safeway before the completion of its £3bn takeover earlier this month.

But trading had been good, with like-for-like sales rising 9.7 per cent in the six weeks to March 14, building on growth of 9.3 per cent during the previous 12 months.

Pre-tax profits reached record levels, rising 13.2 per cent to £319.9m in the 12 months to February 1.

The group has a market share of more than 15 per cent and employs 145,000 staff. It expects the takeover to generate savings of £215m in the year ending 2008.

Anthony Platts, retail analyst at Wise Speke, said investors would focus on how well the two groups integrated.

He said: "This will be no mean feat - Morrison's currently operates with five million square feet of floor space and is taking on a further nine million in acquiring Safeway stores.

"Once the two businesses are fully integrated, we would expect to not only see very keen prices for shoppers but also bumper profits for shareholders."

l Somerfield joined its rivals in seeking a bigger slice of the convenience store sector yesterday with a deal to buy Scottish retailer Aberness, which has 36 stores and supplies products to another 130 outlets, for an undisclosed sum