Acquisition of Żabka enters new phase: Canadian company has begun buying back shares

Canadian Alimentation Couche-Tard, which owns the Circle K chain, has moved to the next stage of acquiring Polish Żabka. Its subsidiary Circle K Polska has announced a voluntary buyback of all retailer's shares at 32 zlotys per share.

The agreement to acquire Żabka was announced back in late July. At that time, the transaction was valued at approximately 32.62 billion zlotys, or $8.6 billion. Now the company has started the procedure through which the deal is to be actually implemented.

The offered price of 32 zlotys is about 2.3% higher than the last closing price of Żabka shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange - 31.28 zlotys. The shares will be bought by Circle K Polska.

When the deal was announced, Żabka's main shareholders, including CVC Capital Partners, Partners Group and key company managers, pledged to sell their stakes. Together they control about 57% of the chain's shares.

Żabka may be delisted

The further scenario will depend on how many shares Couche-Tard manages to collect. If the Canadian company obtains at least 95% of votes in Żabka, it plans to compulsorily buy back the remaining shares and start the delisting procedure from the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

For Couche-Tard, the acquisition of Żabka will be the largest deal in the company's history. The Canadian group also expects to reap approximately $250 million in annual economic synergies within three years after the completion of the transaction.

Żabka is the largest convenience store chain in Poland and also operates in Romania. In total, the chain has about 13 thousand outlets.

Earlier, Kurs Ukrainy wrote about the agreement of Alimentation Couche-Tard to acquire Żabka. The current launch of the share buyback is the next stage of this deal.

Based on materials from: Alimentation Couche-Tard, Rzeczpospolita