Russian food retailer O'Key confirms talks with Sberbank

O'Key SA

12/04/2019 10:43

MOSCOW, April 12 (Reuters) - Russian mid-sized food retailer
O'Key  OKEYq.L  said on Friday that Russia's largest lender
Sberbank  SBER.MM  had expressed interest in its hypermarket
business.
    State-controlled Sberbank is in talks to buy O'Key, six
industry sources told Reuters on Thursday. One of the sources
said that O'Key's discount chain Da! could be left out of the
possible deal.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N21T5RZ
    O'Key's board of directors "confirms that it is evaluating
various directions for development and strategic options for the
company's hypermarket business, including an indication of
interest in this business from Sberbank," O'Key said in a
statement on Friday.
    This evaluation is at a preliminary stage and no definitive
proposals or decisions have been made, it added.
    The talks follow a decline in the shares of many Russian
food retailers over the past year and expectations of sector
consolidation because of tougher regulation and a decline in
Russian consumers' disposable incomes.
    O'Key currently has a market value of about $554 million.
The company has held talks with various parties in recent years
over a sale of its hypermarkets.
    If Sberbank agrees to buy O'Key, it could then sell it to
another investor, one of the industry sources and a source close
to Sberbank management told Reuters on Thursday. They did not
disclose the name of the potential investor.

 (Reporting by Polina Devitt; editing by Keith Weir)
 ((Polina.Devitt@thomsonreuters.com; +7 495 775 12 42; Reuters
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