SUPERMARKET chain Morrisons last night satisfied conditions imposed upon it by regulators by selling a final batch of Safeway stores.

Morrisons exchanged contracts on four stores in the North - including one in Middlesbrough - to fulfil commitments made to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in December 2003 in return for its £3bn takeover of Safeways being given the go-ahead.

Of the stores being sold, Tesco will take control of a former Safeway branch at Coulby Newham, on Teeside.

The OFT ordered Morrisons to sell 52 Safeway branches to allay competition concerns.

Store disposals have been made on a piecemeal basis since the takeover completion last year, and buyers have included rivals Waitrose, Asda and Sainsbury's.

Somerfield - itself the subject of a £1bn takeover approach - has agreed to take over a branch in Leeds and smaller rivals United-Co- operatives and Netto have bought stores at Chester and Bolton respectively.

In a statement, Morrisons announced that "contracts have been exchanged for the final four divestment stores required to be sold under the undertakings given to the OFT".

A spokesman for Morrisons said the disposal programme had been completed with a "logical time frame" and bosses were happy with the length of time.

The takeover of Safeway was welcomed by investors as a bold move that would deliver cost savings and trading benefits worth £215m a year by 2008 and transform Morrisons into the fourth-biggest food retailer in the UK.

But the takeover has been dogged by difficulties since then, and Morrisons conceded in May that costs associated with integrating the two businesses were likely to remain higher and take longer to eliminate than hoped.

More than £2bn has been wiped off the value of Morrisons since the Safeway takeover.