Jeronimo Martins sells Polish unit
& carry business in Poland to an MBO, allowing it to
concentrate on its Biedronka business there.
Struggling Portuguese retail group Jeronimo Martins has reached an agreement to sell its Polish cash & carry business Eurocash to a management buyout team for €30 million.
The sale of the business brings Jeronimo Martin's programme of disposals and restructuring to an end, and the company will clearly be hoping to turn over a new page in its recent troubled history.
While JM will make neither a loss nor a profit on the Eurocash sale - since the €30 million it will receive for the business is roughly the same as the amount it has invested in the company - the burden of running Eurocash's 80 outlets will be removed, allowing JM to focus solely on its remaining Polish business, Biedronka, which has been the group's only real success in Poland, lifting sales by 21 per cent last year.
The sale of the Eurocash business will also not affect the Jeronimo Martins Dystrybucja and Eurocash joint venture, which will continue to negotiate with suppliers for both companies.
JM has been busy offloading a number of its underperforming businesses over the last year, including the Jumbo hypermarket business in Poland, which it sold to Dutch group Ahold in October.
In South America, the company sold its Se and Apoio stores in Brazil, and in the UK disposed of its Lillywhites business, all of which have already begun to help the company to an improvement in its financial fortunes - although the road to recovery is still far from over.
