We already knew that five parties have bid for (parts of) the ailing Makro Cash&Carry Belgium. Who exactly offered how much for which parts, that was not yet known… Until now.
Sligro wants it all
First the biggest candidate: Sligro is offering by far the most for most of the Metro shops, according to the “Petition to obtain authorisation to sell”, that RetailDetail was able to look into. The Dutch wholesale chain is offering 47 million euros (plus the value of stock) for nine or ten of Metro’s eleven Belgian outlets.
The only store that is certainly not part of the bid is the one in the North of Antwerp (as it is too close of one of its existing stores). For Evergem (Ghent) Sligro clarifies that it is part of the bid, but that it would drop Evergem from its own bid if another bidder was interested. However, the takeover price would not be changed in that case.
In addition to the existing stores, the concession in Charleroi is also part of the Sligro offer, as are the real estate of the Liège site, all the assets, the stock in the Willebroek warehouse and so on. Sligro also promises to make job offers to all staff at the Antwerp-North site and to take over 100 employees that currently work at the headquarters.
Remarkably, Sligro also reported that the competition authority had already given its approval for the possible acquisition. Therefore, although this would be a merger of the two largest forces in the sector, Sligro would still not have to divest branches in the event of a successful bid.
Management does not submit acquisition proposal
The second major candidate was also already known: current CEO Vincent Nolf made a strong case for being the best candidate when it comes to staff and customers. Interestingly, his bid also only mentions ten of the eleven branches (again, excluding Antwerp North). He would, however, like to keep the entire head office – as well as the Metro Chef Academy. The bid from the “management team” further promises a willingness to offer 514 employees a job security agreement of at least three years.
One particularly big difference from Sligro’s bid, however, is the price: Nolf – contrary to earlier reports – is offering barely 100,000 euros for the chain, plus a conditional 10,000 euros for stock. Moreover, management’s bid surprises by being the only one without an attached draft acquisition agreement.
Local candidates bid on parts
A third candidate, Limburg-based Van Zon, had also already made public that it had made a bid for some stores: according to our information, the group has put an offer of 400,000 euros on the Evergem branch (including 21 employees). If the offer is accepted, it would mean that Sligro would take over only nine and not ten stores.
The last accepted bid on wholesale chain Metro came from Bruges-based group Horeca Totaal, that currently already has branches in Bruges, Ostend and Antwerp. This fourth candidate is offering one million euros for Metro Liège’s real estate (without, however, honouring ongoing agreements) and all staff at the Liège and Middelkerke branches. Horeca Totaal would also like to offer 10 % of the purchase value of stock in the Liège shop.
For completeness’ sake: a fifth bid, from a French group that claimed to be interested in cash&carry chain Makro, was not accepted due to not meeting the conditions.
