Only a few days after Kruidvat’s parent company, AS Watson had expressed an interest in Holland & Barrett, the chain was sold to a Russian billionaire who almost doubled AS Watson’s offer.
Three times the annual turnover
Mikhail Fridman paid 1.8 billion pounds (2 billion euro) to acquire the chain, considerably more than the fees mentioned over the past few days. AS Watson was only “willing” to pay 1.15 billion euro, but Fridman is one of Russia’s richest men, having made his money from oil – like so many of his fellow Russian billionaires. His investment company is also firmly vested into the energy and telecom industries: he is also telecom company Vimpelcom’s majority shareholder.
Officially, L1 Retail will acquire Holland & Barret: the investment fund owned by Fridman that is worth 2.5 billion euro and was only created last year to buy its way into the European retail industry.
Holland & Barrett has more than 1,400 stores in 16 countries. More than half of its own stores are located in the United Kingdom. Its 2016 turnover reached about 610 million pounds (700 million euro), showing that its new owner paid nearly three times its annual turnover to acquire the chain. Usually, acquisitions in this industry generate about 75 % of a company’s annual turnover.
