The Swedish retail group ICA Gruppen has announced plans to sell the Rimi Baltic retailer to the Salling Group in Denmark, this according to a news release from the Swedish company.
ICA Gruppen’s central market is in Sweden, where in addition to grocery retailing, the group also provides pharmaceutical, banking, insurance and real estate services.
The group hopes that the selloff of the Baltic operation will yield funds that will allow it to continue to make investments and allocate resources to its business operations in Sweden so as to strengthen and broaden the customer offering in its core marketplace.
ICA Gruppen grocery retail operations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are valued at EUR 1.3 billion (~SEK 14.4 billion), according to the group’s statement.
“Because of ICA Gruppen’s strong focus on the Swedish market and the fact that it has no ambitions to expand beyond Sweden, it was a natural decision to divest our operations in the Baltics,” the group said.
Rimi Baltic operates retail chains in all three Baltic States, posting revenues of EUR 1.809 million in 2023, which was 5.5% more than a year before.
Rimi Latvija ended 2023 with revenues of EUR 1.076 billion (+4.7%) against 2022, with year-on-year profits rising to EUR 29.09 million (+5.8%).
Rimi Latvija was registered in January 1992 with share capital of EUR 5, and it is owned by the Swedish-registered Rimi Baltic.
Source: BNS
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