Shopkeepers want to buy Swedish retail group ICA

The association of store managers of Swedish retailer ICA want to acquire their chain and take it off the stock exchange, tabling a bid of five billion euros.

Flexibility

ICA-handlarnas Forbund, the association of ICA store managers, have issued a bid of 49.4 billion Swedish crowns for the remaining stores of the Swedish retail holding. The bid values the totality of the supermarket group at 107.4 billion crowns (10.8 billion euros).

The ICA group mostly consists of supermarkets in Sweden, but it also contains a drugstore chain, a bank and supermarkets in the Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. On an international scale, the group is active in the retail alliance Epic Partners and has hit the headlines with its home deliveries straight into the fridge.

The store managers’ association – together with pension fund AMF – hope to be able to buy enough shares to unlist the retailer from the stock exchange. In doing so, the new owners hope to make their chain leaner and more flexible, which is necessary in order to meet the changes facing the retail sector – such as a growing competition, new consumer patterns and digital transition, the board of directors say.

The ICA-handlarnas Forbund already has a majority (54 %) of ICA’s shares, meaning it is very unlikely that the deal will be voted down by ICA’s shareholders.