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Bloomberg
Fomento Economico Mexicano agreed to buy Switzerland-based convenience store operator Valora for as much as $1.2 billion to expand into Europe.
Femsa, as the company is known, offered 260 francs a share, a premium of 52% to the closing price, the companies said. Valora climbed as much as 51% to 258 francs in early Swiss trading.
Based in Monterrey, Mexico, Femsa operates the largest convenience-store chain in Mexico and Latin America, as well as more than 3,600 pharmacies in four Latin American countries. It also controls the largest franchise bottler of Coca-Cola products in the world in terms of sales volume. Femsa, which reported $27 billion of sales in 2021, will pay for the acquisition with cash on hand.
Valora has about 2,700 small-scale points of sale located at highly frequented
locations in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, with brands including Brezelkönig and Caffè Spettacolo. It’s also one of the world’s leading producers of pretzels.
Valora’s board unanimously recommends the Femsa offer to shareholders. The deal will create a player in the European convenience-store and food service market catering to an increasingly mobile and digital clientele, the companies said.
“Valora has the knowledge, experience, network and operating and cultural understanding required to expand rapidly and sustainably in the various European markets, while we bring to bear proven expertise in scaling growth,†Carlos Arenas, CEO of Femsa’s proximity division, said.