Lenta’s purchase of the Billa network (Billa Russia) is accompanied by litigation.
According to the correspondent MorningNews, last summer, Lenta announced the completion of a deal to acquire Billa Rossiya supermarkets. However, everything turned out to be not so simple.
MKPAO Lenta , one of the largest multi-format retail chains in Russia, announces that its indirect subsidiary Lenta LLC has completed the purchase of the Billa Rossiya supermarket chain,” the report said. publications on the site.
The details of the deal were not kept secret at all. In particular, it was not hidden that the purchase price at the time of closing was about 225 million euros.
Lenta also announced plans to integrate 161 acquired supermarkets, supply chain infrastructure, and the structure of Bill Russia into its own retail network.
“This acquisition will significantly accelerate Lenta’s strategic expansion in Moscow through first-class retail outlets that are mature properties with high sales density,” said Lenta about the advantages of the deal.
But are there any catches?
The fact is that the acquisition of the Bill supermarket chain by Lenta is accompanied by litigation around several stores, writes “Kommersant” and explains that the rights to lease them to the company were transferred under the terms of the transaction. But there is such a nuance: the credit organization “Trust” has achieved the sale of these objects as part of the collection of debts from the owner of the premises – the company Retail Chain Properties.
It turns out that the Moscow Arbitration Court granted the bank’s application and foreclosed on real estate pledged under a mortgage agreement with Retail Chain Properties Ltd.
This foreign company, according to the publication, is associated on the market with the former owners of the mentioned bank Ilya Yurov, Nikolai Fetisov, Sergey Belyaev.
We are talking about 13 objects in Moscow, the premises in which Billa rented.
An important nuance: the largest shareholders of Lenta are “Severgroup”, and the CEO of “Severgroup” is a well-known businessman Alexei Mordashov.
The chairman of the A1 Bar Association, Alexander Zablotskis, whose words are quoted by Kommersant, considers the chances of challenging the decision in higher instances low.
The Trust told the publication that they plan to follow the procedure for foreclosing assets, and they want to sell the received property at an open auction. The cost of objects is rather big.
Mikhail Burmistrov, General Director of Infoline-Analytics, said that this dispute, as well as other potential risks associated with lease agreements for objects of the purchased network, were taken into account by Lenta when agreeing on an agreement with Rewe Group, but there was no significant discount.
At the same time, the source of the publication claims that for Lenta, history threatens to shift the planned opening dates for some stores.
Courts are courts, and work is work. Whether litigation will affect Lenta’s plans or not, it is impossible to say for sure now, but their unpleasant consequences may manifest themselves.
