Assimilation into Auchans
Auchan takes over all of Real’s hypermarkets in Poland, Romania, Russia
and the Ukraine: in these countries, the name ‘Real’ will disappear as
the hypermarkets will be assimilated into Auchans. The French chain also
acquires Real’s real estate, including thirteen shopping centres in
Russia and Romania.
In the four countries concerned, Real has a yearly tunrover of 2.6
billion euro and employs 20,000 people. The new stores will almost
double Auchan’s current presence of 98 hypermarkets in these countries.
Second major acquisition in CEE
Although the two main parties have agreed to the transaction, it still needs approval of the competiton agencies in the four countries. Auchan
hopes to finish the deal somewhere next year.
This is the second major acquisition this year for Auchan in the CEE
region, after buying all seven Hungarian Cora hypermarkets from the
Belgian Louis Delhaize chain last April.
Focus on core businesses
The Metro Group has been trying to focus on its two main strengths, cash
and carry (Metro, Makro) and consumer electronics (Media Markt,
Saturn), and is in a long process of cutting off less profitable parts
of its empire. After shelving the sale of Galeria Kaufhof, this
transaction is Metro’s first big step towards achieving that goal.
Still, the lion’s share of Real is not part of the deal, as
the 316 German and 12 Turkish hypermarkets (generating a turnover of 8.6
billion euro) remain under Metro’s control. Their future within the
German group is unclear.
