Delhaize has announced that it is planning to complete the purchase of the remaining shares in Greek group Alfa-Beta Vassilopoulos (ABV), 17 years after becoming the retailer's majority shareholder.
The group said that it would acquire the last 34.7 per cent of shares through its Delhaize Nederland unit, at an approximate cost of €135m, Reuters reported.
Any offer can only be made following approval by the Hellenic Capital Market Commission.
'The offer includes an attractive cash premium for the minority stakeholders of Alfa-Beta for a stock with very limited trade volume,' said Delhaize chief executive officer Pierre-Olivier Beckers in a statement.
'Following the tender offer, Delhaize Group intends to operate Alfa-Beta with no major changes to its current business model or strategy,' he added.
At the beginning of May, ABV revealed that profit dropped 72 percent to €2.1m (down from €7.6m) during the first quarter of the year asconsumption levels dropped amid the continued economic slowdown.
