Delhaize faces Serbian buyout delay

Possible fraud during privatisation

In 2005, the richest man in Serbia, Miroslav Mišković,
struck gold during a wave of privatisations: no less than 24 companies came
into his hands in what now appear to be very suspicious circumstances. Amongst
those companies was also C Market of the Delta Maxi Group, which Delhaize
bought in 2011.

Mišković has been in jail since December,
awaiting the further course of the investigation. To not endanger the
investigation, the Serbian court has decided to freeze the buyout bid of 16% of shares of C Market for half a year.

Important market for Delhaize

Early February Delhaize said it wanted to buy
out the Serbian government for an amount of 9.7 million euro, to get hold of 91% of C
Market – the other 9% are owned by employees. The Belgian chain already
bought three quarters of shares when it bought the Delta Maxi Group in 2011.

“For Delhaize nothing changes”, says spokesman
Steven Vandenbroeke: “We already are the majority shareholder, so practically the
delay of the buyout has no consequences. We are also not involved in the
investigation and this is only a delay: it will not have any impact on Delhaize.”

Serbia is an important market for Delhaize,
which had a huge rise in sales in Southern Europe last year. Until now the
chain is still the only Western European country that got a foothold in that
region, be it through a takeover.