Albertsons Wins Court Ruling to Proceed With Special Dividend

State attorneys general failed in their bid to pause Albertsons Cos.’ plans to pay a $4 billion special dividend to shareholders while antitrust regulators review its $24.6 billion merger with Kroger Co.

The dividend’s inclusion in the companies’ merger agreement is a concerted action that violates Section 1 of the Sherman Act, the AGs from California, Illinois, and Washington, D.C. argued.

But the AGs failed to demonstrate that the two grocery giants had an agreement about the dividend, said Judge Carl J. Nichols of the US District Court for the District of Columbia in a Wednesday ruling.

The evidence that ...