International private equity funds have expressed interest in acquiring Italian supermarket chain Esselunga, according to local media reports.
Italian daily, “Milano Finanza”, claims that Blackstone is interested in the retail part of the company, and the bid for the non-real estate assets would amount to around €6 billion.
For its part, “La Repubblica”, mentions alleged interest by Advent International and Texas Pacific Group.
In previous years, foreign retailers such as Wal-Mart, Tesco, Delhaize and Mercadona were mentioned as potentially interested in Esselunga.
Esselunga ended 2015 with a turnover of €7.3 billion (+4.3% on 2014) and €290 million in net profit (+37%).
Last year, five new sales points were opened, taking the total to 153 stores (in the superstore and supermarket formats) in the Lombardy, Tuscany, Emilia Romagna, Piedmont, Veneto, Liguria and Lazio regions.
Esselunga was founded and is controlled by Italian businessman Bernardo Caprotti.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
