Metro concedes, opens Real acquisition talks with X+Bricks

The ongoing efforts of the consortium surrounding real estate investor X+Bricks to win over Metro‘s Real chain appear to be bearing fruit. The German wholesaler has confirmed that it has started exclusive negotiations with the consortium, to be completed by the end of January.

Fierce battle

For a long time, it looked like Redos would win the battle as that offer would allow Metro to retain a stake in Real. In the meantime, however, the negotiations between Metro and Redos have ended. According to Reuters, Metro’s main shareholder Daniel Kretinsky found Redos’ bid too low.

In the meantime, X+Bricks did not give up the fight and raised its bid last month. According to the latest reports, the real estate investor agreed to pay 500 million euros for the operational activities of Real, the webshop and eighty retail properties.

Initially, some of the 277 stores would continue to trade as Real, but in time the majority of the stores will be sold to retailers such as Edeka, Kaufland, Rewe or Tegut. Metro and X+Bricks would like to finish the deal by the end of January 2020, Reuters’ sources claim.

According to rumours, it was Kaufland that helped to ensure the deal with Redos failed. As an exclusive partner of X-Bricks, Kaufland linked its destiny to the consortium because it wants to take over 140 Real stores.