(Reuters) – Swiss duty-free group Dufry announced on Monday that it has acquired Italian airport and motorway catering specialist Autogrill, a deal that will make the Benetton family the largest shareholder in the new entity.
The Benetton family, majority shareholder of Autogrill through its Edizione holding company, will transfer its entire 50.3% stake to Dufry in exchange for 0.158 Dufry shares per Autogrill share contributed.
Edizione will become Dufry’s main shareholder with a stake of between 20% and 25% of the capital.
Following this transaction, Dufry will launch a public tender offer for the remaining Autogrill shares, under which shareholders will have the choice of receiving 0.158 new Dufry shares or 6.33 euros per share tendered.
Xavier Rossinyol will lead the merged entity while current Autogrill Managing Director Gianmario Tondato da Ruos will become Executive Chairman of the company’s North American operations.
The two groups had announced that they had started discussions with a view to a possible merger at the end of June.
According to Dufry, the group resulting from this merger will generate a turnover of 13.6 billion Swiss francs (13.7 billion euros) and a profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) of 1.4 billion francs.
(Report Maria Ponnezhath and Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; French version Valentine Baldassari)
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