The supermarket Sainsbury’sbrand has put in another offer to acquire the Argos owner Home Retail Group.

Sainsbury’s says it aims to “future-proof” its business with the £1.3bn offer.

Chief executive Mike Coupe said the deal would allow consumers to shop “whenever and wherever” they wanted.

“We can bake a bigger cake and do a better job for our customers than we can do as separate businesses,” he told the BBC.

Sainsbury’s made an offer worth 161.3p a share for Home Retail on Tuesday.

The offer represents a 63% premium to Home Retail’s closing share price on 4 January when the supermarket’s interest was revealed.

Sainsbury’s approached the owner of Argos and the Homebase DIY chain in November, but was rebuffed by Home Retail’s board.

The deal will depend on the sale of Homebase that Australia’s Wesfarmers has agreed to buy for £340m.

Steve Clayton, head of equities research at Hargreaves Lansdown, described the offer as a “bold play” by Sainsbury’s.

But Sainsbury’s, which has already been trialling Argos concessions in 10 of its stores, has now offered £1.3bn to win control of Home Retail Group.

It argues buying the group would help it to boost sales growth, improve its delivery networks, and mean they could sell their products to each other’s customers.

The supermarket says the leases of around half of Argos’ 734 stores across the UK are due for renewal over the next four to five years, and it is believed to have identified between 150 and 200 stores which it could shut and move into a nearby Sainsbury’s store.

 

John Rogers, Sainsbury’s chief financial offer, said he was confident that shareholders in both Sainsbury’s and Home Retail would back the deal.

The £120m of annual savings expected by 2019 was also a “conservative” figure, he added.

Sainsbury’s expects to make savings by moving some Argos stores into supermarkets as leases expire, as well as removing “duplication and overlap” and selling its own clothing and homeware ranges through Argos.

However, it said making these changes would cost it £140m in the first three years.

Sainsbury’s had until 17:00 on Tuesday to make an offer for Home Retail.

 

Home Retail said it “believes in the prospects for the standalone company”, but that the possible offer provides an “attractive opportunity” for shareholders.