Bass-Led Group Raising Vons Stake to 8.8%

A partnership including the far-flung Robert M. Bass Group of Ft. Worth and the Shearson Lehman Hutton investment firm on Thursday agreed to acquire 7.5% of Vons Cos. for $38 million.

The buyers, operating under the name Acadia Partners, would increase their stake in the El Monte supermarket chain to 8.8% overall and become the company’s second-largest shareholder.

In a separate, smaller transaction, Vons’ biggest shareholder--leveraged buyout specialists Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.--agreed to increase its stake in the chain to 34%.

The deals appeared to be a vote of confidence in a company that lost $23 million in its last fiscal year on sales of $3.9 billion. Vons has been saddled with heavy debt payments since it acquired 162 Safeway stores last year. It has 350 stores in Southern California and Nevada.

Both groups increasing their stakes in Vons will pay $13 a share for stock from Warburg, Pincus Associates, a New York investment firm that will no longer own a substantial holding in Vons. The buyers said their moves were for long-term investment purposes.

“Vons fits well with Acadia’s long-term, value-oriented investment strategy,” said Peter T. Joseph, managing general partner of Acadia and a Vons board member.

In a prepared statement, Vons Chairman Roger E. Stangeland welcomed the deals.

“We are pleased that our stock will be held by shareholders who are so firmly committed to our business,” Stangeland said.

Added Sarah Stack, an analyst at Bateman Eichler, Hill Richards: “I think they see a good franchise, favorable demographics and opportunity for significant increases in sales.”

Although the Bass Group is known for its takeover efforts, its Acadia partnership can buy no more than 17.5% of Vons through July, 1990.

“It would be difficult to accumulate enough stock for a takeover, “ said Edward Comeau, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. He said the Bass Group “would have to get the blessing of (Vons) management and Kohlberg Kravis to pull it off.” Vons stock closed at $16.375 Thursday, up 50 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange. Trading was briefly halted Thursday to allow Vons to release the announcement on the stock deals.