Retailers Sonae, Lidl and Aldi could be among bidders interested in purchasing 463 Minipreço supermarkets in Portugal. The chain is owned by Spain’s DIA Group.
This comes after Pedro Soares dos Santos, CEO of Jerónimo Martins, stated that the Portuguese retail group has no interest in buying the Minipreço stores.
"We are not in the race for Minipreço and we are not interested. Even if we were, they would only be some assets," Soares dos Santos said according to a report in Economia Online.
His comments followed a report in the Spanish daily, Expansión, according to which DIA Group has already entered into a second phase of negotiations with four finalists, namely Sonae, Jerónimo Martins, Lidl and Aldi.
Read More: Spain's DIA Mulls Sale Of Portuguese Operation
Minipreço Divestiture
The Madrid-based group has hired Societé Générale for the sale of the 463 Minipreço stores in Portugal, a divestiture that is part of DIA’s corporate reorganisation process and aimed at improving profitability.
Last year, DIA sold its Clarel cosmetics chain to Alcampo supermarket, Auchan's Portuguese subsidiary. In March 2023, it completed the sale of 235 medium-sized supermarkets in Spain to Alcampo for €267 million.
Portugal is the smallest market for the DIA Group and accounted for 8% of its total turnover in 2022, amounting to €596 million.
As of 31 December 2022, DIA had 463 outlets stores in Portugal, 36 less than a year earlier, in addition to three distribution centres, employing nearly 3,000 people.
Last year, DIA closed 25 Minipreço supermarkets, laying off 159 people.
Read More: Top 10 Supermarket Retail Chains In Portugal
© 2023 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
