A court order from Friday shows that the state supreme court of Washington did not let Albertsons Companies Inc. pay a special dividend before it was bought by Kroger (NYSE:KR) Co.
A lower court’s block was extended by the court, and the block will stay in place until the court says otherwise.
In a statement, Albertsons said, “The State of Washington Supreme Court has kept the temporary restraining order against the company’s previously announced special dividend in place while it decides whether or not to hear the state’s appeal.”
The U.S. grocery chain has asked the Washington Supreme Court to speed up its review, the statement said.
Earlier in December, Albertsons said that the Washington State Court had turned down a request by the state’s Attorney General for a preliminary injunction to stop the company from giving a special dividend of $4 billion to its shareholders.
Related: According to Albertsons, Washington AG’s motion for an order to halt the payment of the company’s dividend was denied.
Kroger bought Albertsons for $25 billion in October. This was a huge merger between the No. 1 and No. 2 grocery stores. Kroger said the merger would help it compete on price with Walmart (NYSE:WMT), which leads the U.S. grocery industry.
People are very upset about the planned merger because they think it will hurt competition.
