Metro AG announced the sale of Real hypermarket chain: details of the deal
Metro AG is a German holding company that owns large retail chains around the world. It owns famous Metro stores, which are the third largest in Europe and the fourth largest in the world by volume and profitability. Recently it became known that the holding company sells one of its networks – Real.
The buyer is a group of investors from Luxembourg and Germany, SCP Group and x+bricks. A document of intent was signed between the parties to the transaction. It is planned that all paper issues will be completed by the end of this year.
The sphere of SCP Group Advisory company activity is the European real estate market. In addition, it is interested in its connection with the Russian billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenko, whose fortune is about 1.5 billion dollars. The businessman owns AFK Sistema holding, which is also connected with the German company.
So far, the sale process is at the stage of signing a binding agreement. The Supervisory Board on the part of Metro is carefully checking the documentation and the terms of the agreement. The Management Board of the holding company agrees on all the stages. After that the transaction is sent to the approval procedure, which is issued by the German Competition Committee. In addition, the country’s regulators must check the legality of the actions taken.
From the details of the deal we know that the chain of Real brand stores costs about 300 million euros. It was previously reported that the business was valued at 500 million euros, and the investment group SCP Group and x+bricks were to pay this amount to Metro. The reasons for the price decrease are still unknown.
The retail chain Real includes 276 hypermarkets, which are located exclusively in Germany. According to the current annual report for the past period, revenues amounted to more than €7 billion, which is a significant contribution to the assets of Metro Holding. With the sale of Real, the online shop real.de and 80 properties are transferred to the new owners. According to the agreement, Metro will continue to provide services for Real processes, but the volume of work from the German holding will gradually decrease.
After Metro AG officially announced its intention to sell the trading network, a scandal broke out. The employees of Real were afraid that most of the stores would be closed and one in three people could lose their jobs. However, after a while SCP Group and x+bricks announced that they had agreed that the contracts of the employees would be kept, some of them would be employed in other stores.
The sale of the brand is connected with the fact that the German holding company is reorganizing its business, the purpose of which is to return to wholesale sales as it was at the inception of the company.
