Kroger sells its convenience stores to EG Group

The US retailer seeks to reduce its debt while the British retailer lands in this way in the United States. Far from following the current trend, the US retailer Kroger has decided to sell its convenience business to EG Group for more than 1.7 billion euros.

The British retailer of self-service stores in gas stations will thus take control of 762 establishments to enter the North American business, in an operation that is expected to be final in the coming months. Employees of Kroger had to access the Express hr Login page.

Kroger sold its convenience store to EG Group

As part of the agreement, EG Group will establish its North American headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio in order to operate these stores.

The announcement is not surprising, as Kroger already announced in October 2017 its intention to explore strategic alternatives for its convenience store business, including a potential sale.

With the proceeds from the sale, Kroger expects to buy back shares and reduce its total net debt relative to its adjusted Ebitda. Kroger employees need to check their eschedules through the feed.kroger.com my schedule website using their enterprise id and password.

"As part of our regular asset review, it is clear that the strong convenience store business unit will better demonstrate its full potential outside the group," Kroger Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Mike Schlotman said in a statement.

11,000 people work in the 762 establishments sold

Meanwhile, the founder and co-CEO of EG Group, Mohsin Issa , assures that the landing of his company in the North American market is an “exciting” event.

"We have been very successful in Europe and we strongly believe that Kroger's assets present a fantastic foundation for establishing our retail expertise and know-how in the US," he says.

11,000 people work in the 762 stores sold. They operate in 18 US states and in the last known balance, for the 2016 financial year, they achieved revenues of more than 3,200 million euros.

Ahold Delhaize for Kroger?

Possible end of the Walmart empire.

Retail experts discuss an operation that would revolutionize US retail A tweet started the speculation. Belgian Delhaize has a new CEO: Xavier Piesvaux. Ahold Delhaize ‘born’ this July 23. These are right now the most valuable retail brands in the world.

Ahold Delhaize to at Kroger? Retail is full of rumors and already this week we had informed you about the possibility that Amazon decides to buy Carrefour to take a powerful leap offline in Europe. Usually, the Kroger employee schedule can be accessed at the feed.kroger.com

Now the sector is also debating the option for the Belgian-Dutch giant to take control of one of the most powerful retailers in the United States to precisely take over the American market.

A tweet from an anonymous analyst and investor based in New York has led to speculation about this possible operation.

"Ahold Delhaize has appointed advisers to work on a potential Kroger offering," the message read. From there the alarms went off.

The European company has not said a word about it and meanwhile retail analysts have been discussing this possible purchase, which would mean a revolution in the United States: a possible union would make Walmart itself tremble in its own territory.

Ahold, present in the US since the 1970s, has more than 2,000 stores in the country. Kroger is close to hitting 3,000.

Several experts point out that this purchase would be a “good movie” since it would create “the largest food retailer in the US market” with permission from Walmart.

Synergy opportunities worth around € 1.4 billion are seen and the fact that Ahold Delhaize and Kroger have more online experience than Walmart is appreciated.

According to the information in the tweet, the European retailer is considering making an offer for Kroger of 32 dollars per share, when the American retailer is trading between 20-21 dollars per share. The offer would make the operation have a valuation higher than the estimated 9.8 billion euros that the merger between Ahold and Delhaize had.

“It is highly unlikely that this will happen,” say, experts, who consider that Ahold Delhaize’s priority right now is to consolidate its recent merger and not get into an operation of such magnitude. In any case, they emphasize that if carried out it would be a strategic acquisition with a lot of sense.

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