Exito buys minority stake in Carulla Vivero

Colombia’s market leader Almacenes Exito will buy a 20 per cent stake in the country’s second largest retailer Carulla Vivero. Exito, in which French retailer Casino holds a 38.58 per cent stake, pays US$108mn for the minority share. It was known that Carulla was looking for a strategic partner and that it had been in talks with Exito/Casino. The acquisition must still receive approval from Colombia’s competition authorities.

According to PlanetRetail, Carulla operates 15 hypermarkets under the Vivero banner, 26 Surtimax and 72 Carulla supermarkets and 42 convenience stores under the Carulla Express and Merquefacil banners (2005 data) and had total sales in 2005 of US$317mn.

In order to facilitate the acquisition Carulla first delisted from the Colombian stock exchange after publicly tendering for the 30 to 40 per cent of shares that were still free floating. These minority shareholders will receive the same price per share (US$15.69) as promised by Exito. Carulla told the newswires that it rebuffed offers from several multinational operators.