Maxima received an exclusive offer from the Spanish chain's sellers and expects to close a deal by March, it wrote.
According to the Spanish portal Distribucionactualidad.com, the Maxima chain is seen as the best buyer for the Spanish company. The Lithuanians had an exclusive offer from the sellers of DinoSol until Jan. 10.
DinoSol is one of Spain's largest distribution companies, ranking fifth among the country's shopping centers. The company projected sales of 1.376 billion euros in 2011, down 1.5 percent compared with 2010.
According to the media, DinoSol came up for sale after its former owner, Permira, pulled out of the business last April. A group of 24 banks, led by Bankia, SocietenGenerale, Lloyds, Alcentra, Indicus and Prudential, now hold a combined stake of 60 percent in the retail operator.
DinoSol is the second acquisition by Maxima Grupe (Maxima Group) is recent months. It is also buying the Polish retail chain Aldik Nova.
Maxima Grupe's retail sales last year rose by 6.5 percent to 7.767 billion litas (EUR 2.25 b; ex-VAT). The group employs a workforce of over 27,500 people.
Confirmation
VP Grupe (VP Group), one of Lithuania’s largest business groups and the owner of the Baltic largest grocery chain Maxima, is interested in investing in Spain’s chain DinoSol, Aurimas Zimnickas, the group’s representative in charge of this project, has confirmed.
“I can confirm that one of investment companies is interested in the grocery chain DinoSol in Spain. I would not like to make any detailed comments since the information is not public,” Zimnickas told BNS.
Diana Dominiene, director of Vilniaus Prekyba, which owns the retail group Maxima, would not confirm to BNS on Monday that the group was planning to invest in Spain.
“Maxima is not buying anything,” she told BNS.
Zimnickas, former CEO of VP Group’s company NDX Energija, stated in his profile in the social network LinkedIn that he is the director of Luxembourg-based Agile Finance and heads Agile Investment, which is active in Ireland.
