Bloomberg — Jaime Gilinski made an unsolicited $836 million offer for Colombian retailer Almacenes Éxito just a month after the billionaire banker reached a deal to take control of the country’s largest food maker.
Gilinski’s binding cash offer to acquire a 96.52% equity interest in Éxito from Companhia Brasileira de Distribuição’s, using Campbelltown Inc. or another entity, was made public late Wednesday in a regulatory filing. Shares of GPA climbed as much as 16% in early trading in Sao Paulo Thursday, reversing a year-to-date slide.
If successful, the deal would give Gilinski ownership of one of Colombia’s most prominent companies, which has grocery stores and retail chains throughout the country and operations in Uruguay and Argentina. It comes fresh off an agreement Gilinski and Abu Dhabi’s royal family to obtain control of food producer Grupo Nutresa, ending a protracted takeover struggle against the country’s most powerful business group.
Gilinski’s bid for Éxito does not involve the royal family, according to a person familiar with the matter. A public tender offer would be launched to carry out the transaction, subject to regulatory approvals, GPA said in the filing. The offer expires on July 7.
French retail giant Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA, which owns 41% of GPA, said this week that GPA and Éxito may be sold as part of a three-year plan for the sale of assets, but that no timetable, defined targets or open sale process for GPA exists.
Casino’s stock plummeted to a record low on Thursday after it warned shareholders would be “massively diluted” as part of a restructuring. It is proposing a deal in which creditors would swap at least some of their holdings for equity. Casino said this week it needs an equity boost of €900 million ($981 million) or more.
Sao Paulo-based GPA said its management promptly flagged Gilinski’s offer to the company board, which will meet to study it. Éxito separately published the GPA filing in Colombia, saying that it too would keep the market informed about the offer.
In 2019, Casino started a process to simplify the structure of its Latin America holdings, putting control of Éxito under GPA.
--With assistance from Andrea Jaramillo and Vinícius Andrade.
Bloomberg.com
