LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), November 30 (SeeNews) – Slovenia’s largest food retailer Mercator said on Friday it signed an agreement for strategic tie-up with Montenegrin peer Mex as part of plans to become the leading food retailer in southeastern Europe.
Under the agreement, Mercator will become a 51% owner of Mex Market, a newly established company to which Mex will transfer its retail operations, Mercator said in a statement.
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The new company, to operate two shopping centers and eight stores in Montenegro, will employ over 270. Under Mercator's plans, annual revenues of this company will exceed 25 million euro ($36.6 million) in 2008.
As of January 1, the company will change its name to Mercator-Mex and will be responsible for Mercator's overall development in the Montenegrin market. Director of Mercator-Mex will be Ivan Karadzic, currently the director and one of the owners of Mex.
Through this strategic alliance, Mercator has entered its fourth market outside Slovenia. The company now runs retail networks in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia.
Shares in blue-chip Mercator fell 1.13% to an average price of 311.69 euro on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange on Friday.
($ = 0.68 euro)