Slaughter and May advised Ocado Group plc on a subscription for its ordinary shares by The Kroger Co.

Slaughter and May advised Ocado Group plc on a subscription by The Kroger Co. for up to 33,146,200 new ordinary shares in the capital of Ocado, equivalent to 5% of its existing issued share capital, at a value of £183m.

Kroger is one of the world’s largest grocery retailers and a market leader in the United States.

The subscription by Kroger forms part of a wider agreement with Ocado whereby Kroger is granted the exclusive right to use Ocado's distribution technology in the United States.

The agreement will allow Kroger to adopt the centralised, automated model of online retailing provided by the Ocado Smart Platform. Ocado and Kroger have begun negotiations on the fees that will be paid to Ocado to build multiple Customer Fulfilment Centres across the continental United States.