Makro Belgium grants buyers a week’s delay

Parties that are interested in buying the Belgian stores of the Makro and Metro chains, are granted an extra week to formalise their offer. At this moment, only two candidates have gone publicly on the record: Dutch Sligro and current CEO Vincent Nolf – and they may not be interested in buying the whole branch.

Just Metro?

Despite the rumours of “a dozen candidates”, only two have gone on the record to say they are interested in a (partial?) acquisition. This may be the reason why newspaper L’Echo reports that the deadline has been moved back by a week to 15 November. It is generally believed that both Sligro and CEO Nolf are only interested in wholesale chain Metro, not in cash&carry chain Makro.

Nick Peeters, responsible to find the best candidate for the acquisition, only mentions that there currently are “several candidates”. He and his colleagues say they are looking not for the highest bid, but mostly for the project or combination of projects that as big a part as possible of the staff can stay on board.