A shortlist of bidders for the sale of 21% of Mercator, Slovenia’s largest food retailer, is expected to be drawn up by the end of the week.
To date, eight unnamed parties have issued non-binding bids for a stake in the retailer.
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Eight local banks are selling their jointly-owned 36.35% stake in the company. The banks had confiscated the stake from the failed Infond and Istranenz Holdings.
Arkas – the company overseeing the sale – declined to name the parties interested in Mercator, but did confirm however, that Croatian food retailer Agrokor, Mercator’s direct competitor in the region, was one of the bidders.
A spokesperson for Arkas told just-food that the bidders hadn’t yet been shortlisted, but that a decision was expected to be made by Friday.
“There is a process going on with the selling banks to come up with the shortlist and we have the final recommendation out but they haven’t come back to confirm yet. We expect this will be done at the end of the week,” the spokesperson said.
“The bids were submitted two weeks ago. The plan is that the sale will be completed by May so at this next stage the shortlisted bidders are going to be conducting due diligence, which Mercator will provide and enable and after the due diligence we expect to receive binding bids and to complete the sale by the end of May.”
