ICA Gruppen AB: ICA Norway Submits Statement to Competition Authority

Regulatory News:

ICA (STO:ICA) Norway has today sent its statement to the Norwegian Competition Authority regarding the Authority’s review of the cooperation agreement with Norgesgruppen. After the Authority has examined the statement from ICA and Norgesgruppen, the Authority will announce its final decision.

On 13 February the Norwegian Competition Authority issued an advance notice that they intend to stop the cooperation between ICA Norway and Norgesgruppen. ICA was given until 25 April to submit a statement before the Authority announces its decision. The company has today submitted its statement.

"In the statement we address the objections cited by the Authority in its advance notice, but we have not provided any new information. While we wait for the final decision, we are evaluating other alternatives in the event we receive a negative ruling,” says Per Strömberg, CEO of ICA Gruppen.

The background is that ICA Norway has entered into a strategic cooperation with Norgesgruppen within the areas of sourcing and logistics. The aim is to secure competitive prices and product range for ICA’s customers and achieve long-term profitability.

ICA Gruppen discloses the information provided herein pursuant to the Securities Market Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication at 17.35 CET on Wednesday, 9 April 2014.

ICA Gruppen AB (publ) is one of the Nordic region’s leading retail companies, with around 2,400 of its own and retailer-owned stores in Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Group includes the retail companies ICA Sweden, ICA Norway and Rimi Baltic, ICA Real Estate, which owns and manages properties and ICA Bank, which offers financial services to Swedish customers. The Group also includes the wholly owned portfolio companies Forma Publishing Group and inkClub and partly owned portfolio companies Cervera, Hemtex and Kjell & Company. For more information see www.icagruppen.se

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