Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Jumbo wins battle for Super de Boer

       Dutch supermarkets group Jumbo won the battle for peer Super De Boer yesterday after raising its original offer, valuing the company at
       552.5 million ($822.3 million) and knocking out a rival bid.
       Super de Boer said it had agreed to the Jumbo buyout offer after becoming the hot prize in the consolidation of Dutch supermarkets. The original bid from Jumbo was followed by an intended offer from Sperwer, while two other supermarkets joined the battle, separately backing the rival offers.
       But the bid from Jumbo eventually won out.
       "We are convinced that this is a very attractive transaction for all of our stakeholders, including our employees, franchisees, shareholders and, last but not least,our customers," Super de Boer's chief executive Jan Brouwer said in statement.
       The revised offer from Jumbo comes at 4.82 per share. That topped Sperwer's previous 4.50/share offer. Sperwer said it would drop its bid.
       "Jumbo's improved offer for Super de Boer will not be surpassed by Sperwer and we believe that it is unlikely to be surpassed by another suitor," SNS Securities analyst Richard Withagen said.
       The deal creates a supermarket chain store which will increase competition for market leader Ahold, which owns the Albert Heijn stores and has more than a 30% market share.
       Jumbo had agreed to sell 80 Super De Boer stores to rival Schuitema, which operates the C1000 brand, if its bid succeeded, while Sperwer had planned to sell about 40 Super De Boer stores to Ahold if it was successful.
       Super de Boer is 57% owned by French peer Casino.
       Casino said in a separate statement that the price valued the business at 13.9 times estimated EBITDA and generates a gross capital gain of some 60 million for Casino.
       It will also allow Casino to reduce its debt by around 400 million.

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