The Spanish website Europapress.es on Thursday cited unnamed sources as saying that Agile Finance, a company related to VP Grupė, would only take over the chain's debts to suppliers and pay other expenses.
However, Dinosol's management denies that the Supersol chain is being sold for 1 euro. They promise to give more information about the deal with Agile Finance after the Spanish national competition body announces its decision.
Agile Finance CEO Aurimas Zimnickas also denied this information on Friday. "I can deny that. I do wish it were true," he told BNS.
Zimnickas told BNS last Monday that the deal on the sale of Supersol stores had been signed, adding that they were waiting for approval from Spain's competition authority. However, he would not disclose how Agile Finance is related to VP Grupė.
Agile Finance's CEO said that he could not disclose the terms of the deal. He said that the Spanish competition body might take its decision within a month.
Miguel de Pablos, a representative of the Spanish competition body, told BNS that the regulator had been informed about the deal on 1 March.
"We cannot provide more information about that. Under the Spanish Competition Act, the competition authority has a month to make its decision," he said.
Supersol had sales of 578 million euros and EBITDA of 13 million euros at the end of 2009.
Dinosol is one of Spain's largest distribution companies, ranking fifth among the country's shopping centers. The company projected sales of 1.376 billion euros in 2011, down 1.5 percent compared with 2010.
The Spanish retailer came up for sale after its former owner, Permira, pulled out of the business last April. A group of 24 banks, led by Bankia, SocietenGenerale, Lloyds, Alcentra, Indicus and Prudential, now hold a combined stake of 60 percent in the company.
The Maxima Group, which owns a retail chain in the three Baltic countries and Bulgaria, last year posted a 6.5 percent rise in consolidated annual sales to 7.767 billion litas. The group invested 219 million litas in business development last year.
