Salling Group (Netto) and Tesco
17.03.2021
Wardyński & Partners has advised Salling Group in the acquisition of Tesco (Polska). The closing occurred on 16 March 2021, four days after issuance of approval by the Polish competition authority. The value of the enterprise was set at PLN 900 million (about DKK 1.5 billion).
In cooperation with the Danish law firm Gorrissen Federspiel, Wardyński & Partner advised Salling Group in all aspects of the transaction, including representation of the client in proceedings before the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK).
The work of the firm’s lawyers involved in the project was supervised by Izabela Zielińska Barłożek in conjunction with Katarzyna Wójcik-Bąkowska and Maciej Szewczyk. Antoni Bolecki, Marcin Kulesza and Andrzej Madała advised on competition law and proceedings before UOKiK. Real estate aspects were handled by Michał Gliński, Bartosz Kuraś and Michał Wons, tax by Michał Nowacki, employment by Katarzyna Żukowska and Izabela Dziubak-Napiórkowska, financing by Daniel Smarduch, and regulatory by Dominik Wałkowski, Radosław Wasiak and Joanna Krakowiak.
Salling is a Danish retail group which owns the chain of Netto stores (currently with 386 locations in Poland). In the transaction, Salling Group acquired 301 stores currently operating under the Tesco brand, and two distribution centres.
The stores are to be converted from Tesco to the Netto 3.0 format within 18 months from closing.
Netto opened its first store in Poland in 1995 in Szczecin, and today employs over 5,000 people in Poland. Altogether Salling Group has over 53,000 employees in Denmark, Germany and Poland, and over 1,400 stores, including discount stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets.