B&M Sells Off German Retail Chain Jawoll

B&M European Value Retail S.A. announces that, following the strategic review in relation to the Group's German business, which was announced in November 2019, it has exchanged contracts today for the sale of J.A. Woll-Handels GmbH ("Jawoll"). 

The sale is for the Group's entire 80% shareholding in Jawoll to a purchasing consortium led by AC Curtis Salta GmbH, a company funded by Adiuva Capital. The purchaser consortium also includes Wiebke Stern, Sebastian Dorin, Alexander Dorin, STIWEC GmbH and Jalogy Beteiligungs GmbH. 

Completion of the transaction, which is conditional upon, among other things, German competition authority clearance being granted, is expected to occur within the next 28 days or by a long stop date of 1 June 2020. 

Subject to completion, the total consideration payable to the Group for the transaction is €12,501,000 which is to be paid in cash. €2,501,000 is payable on completion of the transaction and €10,000,000 is payable on 31 December 2020 conditional on the on-going trading of Jawoll. In addition, on completion the purchaser's consortium will repay Jawoll's bank debt, which has a facility limit of up to €16m, and had been guaranteed by the Group. 

The total consideration payable to the Group comprises:

(i) €2,500,000 as a part repayment of an intra-group trading account balance of €5,600,000 owed by Jawoll to the Group with the remaining balance having been waived;

(ii) €10,000,000 part repayment of loans made by the Group to Jawoll of €42,980,000 (including interest) with the balance of those loans having been waived; and

(iii) a nominal sum of €1,000 for the Shares.

Accordingly, the transaction will not have a material impact on the Group's leverage. 

Jawoll, together with its wholly owned subsidiary, Jawoll Vertriebs GmbH ("Vertriebs"), is a general merchandise discount retailer with 89 stores in the North-West of Germany. The consolidated losses of those entities as reported for the financial year ended 31 March 2019 was £15.4m and the value of their Gross Assets as at 28 September 2019 (under IFRS16) was £192.6m. 

Source : B&M 

For all the very latest news and intelligence on the largest UK home improvement and garden retailers, sign up for the Insight DIY weekly newsletter.