Bulgaria's Watchdog Oks Delhaize Buy of Piccadilly

Piccadilly retail store chain has 26 supermarkets in Bulgaria, 12 "Piccadilly Express" stores and one hypermarket - "Tempo," which is located in the capital Sofia. File photo

The Bulgarian Competition Protection Commission (CPC) has given the green light to the acquisition of a 100% stake in Serbian Delta Maxi Group, owner of the Piccadilly retail store chain operating in Bulgaria, by Belgium-based company Delhaize.

The deal price is EUR 932.5 M along with net debt of around EUR 300 M.

Delta Maxi (Delta Holding) runs some 450 stores in 5 countries in South-Eastern Euorpe. With the move, Delhaize adds to its already-existing Greek and Romanian branches.

These include neighborhood shops (Mini Maxi, Piccadilly Express and Euromax), department stores (Maxi, Piccadilly and Euromax), discounters (Tempo Express) and hypermarkets (Tempo). Its estimated revenue for 2011 is expected to be around EUR 1.35-1.4 B. Some 15,000 people work for Delta Maxi.

The regulatory bodies in the other countries are expected to rule on the deal in the short term.

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