The big day has arrived. Dia, Carrefour's discount offshoot, Dia, commenced trading on Wednesday in Madrid with a reference price of €3.5 per share, valuing the company at €2.4 billion. The approval of the share distribution was announced in an extraordinary general meeting on June 21st. The first period of sales will run from today until the 18th July, while the second will run from September 1st to 14th. Dia had around €10 billion worth of sales last year and adjusted EBITDA of €553 million.
According to Justin Scarborough at RBS: "The core of Dia is its Iberian business which accounted for 51% of FY10 sales but 74% of adjusted EBITDA (EBITDA margin of 7.6%). It operates in the Emerging Markets of Turkey, Brazil, Argentina and China which in FY10 accounted for 22% of sales but just 7% of EBITDA. Over the next three years we expect EBITDA from its Emerging Markets to rise 5-fold with a 72% CAGR. France is the last region which in FY10 accounted for 26% of Dia's sales and 19% of its adjusted EBITDA. Our expectations for EBITDA in France are low with just 1% 3-year CAGR." (5 July)
© 2011 - ESM: European Supermarket Magazine
