Conad, Italy's largest independent retail organisation, today closed an agreement with Auchan Retail to acquire almost all of Auchan Retail Italia's businesses.
Auchan Retail Italia has approximately 1,600 stores, that are now part of Conad: hypermarkets, supermarkets, local shops with the Auchan and Simply brands, arranged in Italy in a complementary manner to the Conad network.
Francesco Pugliese, Managing Director of Conad, said: "We are pleased to have acquired a distribution network of great value and to have brought it back into the hands of Italian entrepreneurs. This network is going through a difficult period but has great potential and is complementary to that of Conad. Today, a great Italian company is born, which will bring value to Italian companies and consumers.
The acquisition will be completed only after the approval of the Italian Antitrust Authority.
This agreement does not include the supermarkets managed by Auchan Retail in Sicily and the drugstores Lillapois. The agreement also provides that the shopping centres where Auchan Retail Italia's stores are located will continue to be managed by Ceetrus, which continues its activities in Italy.
The acquisition will be carried out by Conad with the support of WRM Group, a company specialising in commercial real estate.
The purchasers were assisted by the lawyers of PwC TLS in all legal and tax aspects and by PwC Advisory in the evaluation and definition of financial issues.