Minneapolis-based Supervalu will take the bulk of the company, paying $12.4 billion of the total transaction, made up of $3.8 billion in cash, $2.5 billion in stock and $6.1 billion in debt assumption. CVS, based in Woonsocket, RI, is buying 700 Albertsons stand-alone drug stores for $2.9 billion. A group that led by private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, which includes Kimco, Schottenstein Stores Corp., Lubert-Adler Partners and Klaff Realty, gets the rest.

Supervalu's portion of the deal will give the company an additional 1,124 stores and bring its portfolio to 2,653 units. The company is picking stores under the banners of Acme Markets, Albertsons, Bristol Farms, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's Supermarkets and Star Markets in the Intermountain, Northeast, Northwest and Southern California regions.

"There are no plans to divest any of this," said Jeff Noddle, chairman and chief executive officer of Supervalu, in a call with analysts and investors. "There aren't as many overlaps as you might expect." The overlap that does exist between portfolios is in the Northwest and Pennsylvania.

It will take approximately three years to integrate Supervalu and Albertsons stores, Noddle says. During that time, some Albertsons units might be converted into Supervalu chains such as its discount vehicle Sav-A-Lot or the natural foods outfit Sunflower Market, which opened its first unit, in Indianapolis, earlier this month.

In Chicago, Supervalu will assume Albertsons portfolio of Jewel-Osco food and drug stores. Meanwhile, the company sold its 26 area Cub Foods units to Cerberus for $61 million.

The Cerberus-Kimco group is getting just under 700 stores in Dallas-Fort Worth, Northern California, Florida, the Rocky Mountains and the Southwest. Meanwhile, CVS picks up 700 stand-alone Sav-On and Osco drug stores, boosting its portfolio to 6,100 units. The deal gives CVS a newly strengthened presence in Southern California and bolsters its existing exposure to the Midwest and Southwest.