A&P sells Metro to buy Pathmark

In order to finance its acquisition of the New Jersey (US) Pathmark Stores, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., has sold all of its 11,726,645 shares of Metro, of which, 1.5 million shares will be bought by Metro. Gross proceeds from the sale of the shares will come to about US$347 million. The transaction is scheduled to close this week.

A&P (owned by the German-based Tengelmann Group) operates 410 stores in nine states and the District of Columbia under the following banners: A&P, Waldbaum's, The Food Emporium, Super Foodmart, Super Fresh, and Food Basics.

Canadian-based Metro operates a network of almost 600 supermarkets in Quebec and Ontario under the Metro, Metro Plus, Super C, A&P, Dominion, Loeb, and Food Basics banners, as well as over 250 pharmacies under the Brunet, Clini Plus, The Pharmacy and Drug Basics banners.