Colombian banker Jaime Gilinski Bacal raised his bet to gain control of the supermarket chain Éxitoaccording to a draft letter seen by Bloomberg.
(Also read: The Czech tycoon Kretinsky, closer to buying the French Casino group)
Gilinski, who in his first attempt offered 836 million dollars for Exito, sent a letter to Exito’s largest shareholder, Companhia Brasileira de Distribuição (GPA) on Tuesday, offering $586.5 million in cash for a 51 percent stake in the retail chain, the agency notes.
This represents a premium per share of more than 30 percent of the original offer, which was made last month for 96.5 percent of Éxito and which was rejected by GPA’s board of directors.
(It may also interest you: Brazilian GPA rejects Gilinski’s offer for Éxito, considering it too low)
The revised offer increases pressure on GPA and its French parent company, Casino Guichard-Perrachon, which is experiencing a financial crisis due to its high level of indebtedness, and which has considered selling units as it seeks to bolster liquidity and reduce its debt burden. debt.
In that oulet del Éxito there are discounts on clothing.
The strategy
GPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Casino owns a 41 percent stake in GPA, which, in turn, owns 96.5 percent of Éxito.
GPA has been considering a possible spin-off from Éxito for the past few quarters. If successful, the deal would give Gilinski ownership of one of Colombia’s largest companies, which operates more than 500 grocery and retail stores across the country and has stores in Uruguay and Argentina.
He comes fresh from a deal the billionaire struck with Abu Dhabi’s royal family to gain control of food producer Grupo Nutresa, ending a protracted fight to take over the country’s most powerful business group.
Gilinski and GPA are due to enter into a preliminary agreement by the end of August, according to the document. GPA’s shares are up about 30 percent when the first offering was made in late June, the best-performing shares in the benchmark Ibovespa index.
Meanwhile, Casino is likely to come under the control of a foreign buyer. Czech investor Daniel Kretinsky is poised to take control after gaining support from key creditors for an enhanced offer to inject 1.2 billion euros (about $1.3 billion).
