Anadolu Group offers €628 million for local supermarket giant

Turkey’s Anadolu Group has offered TRY1.8 billion (€628 million) to buy a 40.25% stake in supermarket chain Migros, marking a new growth area for the conglomerate and lifting the retailer’s shares more than 10%.
The offer was made by Anadolu Industry, the group’s holding company. “We see Migros as an enterprise that could grow our business in Turkey and in countries in the region. This initiative should be understood as a growth strategy for a new sector,” Tuncay Özilhan, chairman of Anadolu Group, told Reuters.
He denied the group was seeking a distribution channel for the shrinking beer business. “Migros only has a 4% share in [Anadolu beer unit] Efes sales,” he said. “We would not pay such a high amount just for this.”
Özilhan also said his company would finance some of Migros’s debts in case of an acquisition. He also noted Anadolu’s bid for a partnership in controlling stakes. The chain has 1,129 stores across Turkey and holds a 14% market share.
London-based BC Partners, a private equity group that owns about 80% of Migros, had entered into informal negotiations to sell the chain over the years. However, a slowdown in the Turkish economy and fall in value of the lira against the dollar made it difficult, according to the Financial Times.
Source: HurriyetDaily