Hakon Invest to buy Sweden’s largest food retailer ICA AB for $3.1 bn from Ahold
11 Feb 2013
Swedish investment company Hakon Invest AB today said it would buy the remaining 60 per cent stake it does not already own in Sweden's largest food retailer ICA AB for 20 billion Swedish crowns ($3.1 billion) from Royal Ahold N.V.
Under the deal that is expected to close by the middle of this year, Amsterdam-based Ahold will also receive a 1.2 billion crowns dividend payment from ICA, taking the total deal price to 21.2 billion Swedish crowns ($3.28 billion).
Hakon said after the acquisition the ICA Retailers Association, which holds a 67.3-per cent stake in Hakon Invest, will divest 10-per cent of its holding to Swedish investment firm Industrivarden.
Following the acquisition, Hakon Invest said that it intends to change its name to ICA Gruppen in order to reflect the group's focus on food, banking, real estate and non-food.
Ahold, which shares managerial control of ICA with Hakon, had said in September 2012 that it would review strategic options for its stake in ICA, including a sale in order to focus on assets where it has complete control.
ICA AB is one of the Nordic region's leading retail companies, with around 2,100 of its own and retailer-owned stores in Sweden, Norway and the three Baltic countries and generated sales of 96.9 billion Swedish crowns last year.
