Auchan, the French retail group, has said that it is preparing a bid for the 41.4 per cent stake in the Italian retail group Rinascente that it does not already own.
Auchan holds the stake in Rinascente via the holding company Eurofind, and it is the latter group which is to carry out the €735.4 million bid for the company. Auchan's partners in Eurofind are the Agnelli family, the main shareholders in the Fiat car group.
The reasoning behind the offer is to delist Rinascente shares from the Milan stock market. Eurofind already owns 58.64 per cent of the voting shares in the Auchan-Rinascente joint venture which operates a chain of hypermarkets in Italy.
Auchan will become the leading player in the Italian supermarket sector following the acquisition, ahead of French rival Carrefour, and taking 100 per cent control of the Rinascente group will give it greater freedom to strengthen its business further in the future via mergers or acquisitions.
The Rinascente group's 1,591 outlets cover a number of store formats, including the eponymous department stores, Sma and Cityper supermarkets, the Auchan-Rinascente hypermarkets and Brico and Leroy Merlin DIY stores. Its sales last year reached €5 billion, up 3.9 per cent, while net profits reached €59.1 million, up 6.1 per cent.