Completes the sale of Shaw's

Sainsbury(J) PLC
30 April 2004


30 April 2004

Sainsbury's completes the sale of Shaw's

On 26 March 2004 Sainsbury's announced the conditional sale of its US business,
Shaw's Supermarkets, to Albertson's, Inc. for a total of US$2,475.  Completion
of the sale to Albertson's was expected to take place by early May 2004.

This transaction has now been completed following anti-trust (Hart-Scott-Rodino)
clearance and completion of the audit for the period ended 28 February 2004.
Sainsbury's has received cash proceeds of US$2,107 million and Albertson's has
assumed US$368 million of store leases that had previously consolidated as debt
on Sainsbury's balance sheet.

Enquiries:

Investor relations                               Media
[phone]                             [phone]
Roger Matthews                                   Jan Shawe
Lynda Ashton                                     Pip Wood


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