COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Swedish grocery retailer ICA Gruppen said on Wednesday it would sell its Baltic subsidiary to Denmark’s biggest supermarket operator Salling Group in a deal worth 1.3 billion euros ($1.38 billion), excluding debt.
The sale of the Rimi Baltic grocery retail business, which operates in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, would result in a capital gain of 7 billion Swedish crowns ($675.04 million), ICA Gruppen said in a statement.
“The transaction will release funds, that will enable continued investments in and allocations of resources to the Swedish business to strengthen and broaden the customer offerings in our core Swedish market,” it added.
Salling Group said in a separate statement that the transaction was its biggest ever deal.
Rimi Baltic employs around 11,000 people and has 314 stores across the three Baltic countries.
($1 = 0.9391 euros)
($1 = 10.4047 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Isabelle Yr Carlsson. Editing by Jane Merriman)
