November 28 (SeeNews) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Monday it is providing a 14 million euro ($14.9 million) loan to Slovenia's Sigur Retail Group for the acquisition of local sports retailer Intersport ISI.
Sigur Retail Group will use a portion of the loan to fund the opening of 50 Intersport stores in Southeastern Europe (SEE) by 2021, as well as the development of an e-commerce business, EBRD said in a statement.
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Slovenian lender Abanka will add a 2.5 million euro term loan and a 5 million euro working capital loan to the financial package, the EBRD added.
“We welcome this transaction which paves the way for Intersport’s future expansion and growth. Combining the traditional retail approach with an increasing share of online sales is a promising strategy to tap a growing market for high-quality and affordable sporting equipment,” EBRD Managing Director for Central and South Eastern Europe Sylvia Gansser-Potts said.
Slovenia-based Sigur Retail Group is fully owned by Polish Enterprise Fund VII, L.P., a private equity fund managed by Enterprise Investors. In September, Sigur Retail Group signed an agreement to buy company Intersport ISI from retailer Mercator for 34.5 million euro.
Intersport ISI is market leader in the sports equipment and apparel sector in south-eastern Europe. It operates a network of almost 100 stores in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, with further franchised stores in Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania, and employs nearly 900 staff. In 2015 it recorded 81 million euro in revenue.
($ = 0.94033 euro)
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