ICA Gruppen AB: Norwegian Competition Authority approves Coop Norway’s acquisition of ICA Norway provided certain conditions are met

Regulatory News:

ICA Gruppen: (STO:ICA)  

The Norwegian Competition Authority announced today their approval of Coop Norway’s acquisition of ICA Norway, but the acquisition may not be completed until Coop Norway has sold on 93 of their stores.

Coop has entered into agreements with Bunnpris and Norgesgruppen to sell the stores concerned. The Competition Authority requires the sales of these stores to be made before Coop’s acquisition of ICA Norway may be carried out. The deal between ICA Gruppen and Coop Norway is therefore expected to be completed shortly.

"It is highly gratifying that the deal with Coop Norway has now been approved by the Norwegian Competition Authority. Above all, this decision is highly positive for the Norwegian ICA organisation, all the employees and stores, which have now finally received a clear decision,” says Per Strömberg, CEO of ICA Gruppen.

ICA Gruppen will continue to report ICA Norway as a discontinued operation until the deal is completed.

The deal was announced on 6 October 2014 and means that ICA Gruppen sells ICA Norway to Coop Norway for SEK 2.8 billion on a debt-free basis, with an assessed capital gain of approximately SEK 1 billion.

ICA Gruppen AB discloses the information provided herein pursuant to the Swedish Securities Market Act and/or the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication at 15.50 CET on Wednesday, 4 March 2015.

ICA Gruppen AB (publ) is a leading retail company with a focus on food and health. The Group includes ICA Sweden and Rimi Baltic which mainly conduct grocery retail, ICA Real Estate which owns and manages properties, ICA Bank which offers financial services and, since January 2015, Apotek Hjärtat which conducts pharmacy operations. The Group also includes ICA Norway which is being divested, the wholly owned portfolio company inkClub and the partly owned portfolio companies Cervera and Hemtex. For more information see icagruppen.se

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