US retail chain Bi-Lo to buy Winn-Dixie Stores for $560 million
20 Dec 2011
US retail chain Bi-Lo is buying food retailer Winn-Dixie Stores Inc in a $560 million in an all-cash deal, that would create a chain of nearly 700 stores across the Southeast and the ninth-largest supermarket chain in the US.
Bi-Lo, owned by Dallas private equity firm Lone Star Funds, will pay $9.50 a share, a 75-per cent premium over Winn-Dixie stock's closing price on 16 December.
The 207 Bi-Lo stores will merge with 480 Winn-Dixies chain in the Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Founded in 1925, Jacksonville-based Winn-Dixie operates some 480 retail grocery stores and employs approximately 46,000 people.
Winn-Dixie was under bankruptcy protection from February 2005 to November 2006.
Based in Greenville, South Carolina, Bi-Lo, founded by former Winn-Dixie executive Frank Outlaw in 1961, emerged from bankruptcy protection last May. It was acquired by Lone Star in 2005 from Dutch grocer Ahold, a Netherlands-based supermarket operator.
