Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Tesco Plc, the U.K.’s biggest retailer, should consider buying Royal Ahold NV at a cost of about 15 billion euros ($22.2 billion) to accelerate its U.S. expansion, ING analysts wrote in a note.

Ahold, the Amsterdam-based owner of Stop & Shop and Giant supermarkets in the U.S., is “cheap on all metrics,” which may lead to takeover interest, analysts Peter Brockwell and John David Roeg wrote in a note dated Oct. 30 and received today. Tesco runs Fresh & Easy shops in the world’s largest economy.

“The U.S. market is too big to ignore, yet any attempt to increase the scale of Fresh & Easy could prove very risky,” wrote the analysts, who recommend buying both companies’ shares. “Ahold should be viewed as a one-off opportunity to acquire an undervalued asset at a low point in the U.S. consumer cycle.”

A Tesco spokesman said the Cheshunt, England-based company would not comment on speculation. He declined to be identified. Ahold spokesman Jochem van de Laarschot declined to comment on takeover speculation or on whether Tesco had made an approach.

Tesco should be able to finance a bid of at least 12.8 euros per Ahold share, potentially adding as much as 20 percent to per-share earnings in 2011, the ING analysts said.

“A deal with Ahold would be less likely to involve Tesco overpaying,” the ING analysts said in the note. “It could acquire a highly cash-generative business.”

Buying Ahold would add about 700 grocery stores operating in the eastern U.S. to Tesco’s 115 Fresh & Easy stores it has opened since 2007 in western states, including California and Arizona. Together with Albert Heijn, the biggest supermarket chain in the Netherlands and Ahold’s businesses in central and eastern Europe, that would boost Tesco’s full-year sales in 2011 to 96.9 billion pounds ($159 billion), the ING analysts said.

“A tie up with Ahold would enable Fresh & Easy to benefit from more favorable supplier terms, give it access to Ahold’s talented U.S. management team as well as enable Fresh & Easy to scale back the size of its overhead cost base,” ING said.

Read full story here