Germany's Tengelmann is in talks with several retailers to sellPlus network in Romania, the second biggest player on the segmentof food discounters, with 277m-euro sales in 2008 and 94operational stores at present.
The network's sale would make the biggest deal in food retail,after Profi broke the record in 2009, selling for 66m euros on140m-euro turnover last year. Taking into account Plus in 2008 soldtwice as much as its rival Profi, Pludi Market company thatoperates the network may be valued at over 100m euros.
"We confirm Tengelmann's being in talks with several retailersfor the sale of Plus stores of Romania," Sieglinde Schuchardt,Tengelmann spokesperson, told ZF.
The deal may be concluded in the following months with LIDL, theretailer planning to enter the market this year, or with Delhaize,operator of Mega Image supermarkets that in 2009 also bid for Profistores, according to market sources.
Delhaize has recently opened its first two discounter storesunder Red Market brand and announced plans to rapidly develop itsnew network in the following years.
"We're not ruling out possible store acquisitions to develop RedMarket," stated Xavier Piersvaux, general manager of Mega ImageRomania, in December, at the moment the first Red Market stores wasopened domestically.
Plus network entered the Romanian market in 2005 and has quicklyexpanded so far, currently reaching 94 stores with total sales ZFputs at over 350-400m euros for 2009. In the previous year, theoperator reported 277m-euro turnover, with 71 operational stores.The company turned profitable in 2008.
In 2007-2008, Tengelmann, with annual sales of around 20bneuros, sold most of its Plus discount stores of Western Europe andalso considered an exit from the sector by giving up allstores.
The retailer negotiated the sale of Plus stores of Romania withCarrefour French group in late 2007, according to some marketsources, but Tengelmann representatives announced they decided notto sell them.
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