He left white smoke for Cencosud In U.S.A. After announcing last May his agreement to acquire 67% of The Fresh Market Holdings for about US$676 million, a supermarket chain oriented to the premium segment, this Tuesday the company linked to the Paulmann family informed the CMF that received authorization from the North American free competition authority.
In the essential fact, Matías Videla, general manager of Cencosud It also reported the financing conditions. Although the acquisition was covered “Mostly with own resources”, also resorted to two loans for US$150 million each.
The document detailed that the credits were contracted with the Bank of America on the one hand, and with HSBC, for the other. Both operations, for a 12 month term.
After closing the agreement, Cencosud fulfilled a old yearning. “Some time ago the board of directors indicated this interest in diversifying and that is why we worked hard with the team, and even with the Paulmann brothers. we were watching operations in the USand we found this company that meets many requirements that generated a lot of interest for us”, said Videla, after the announcement of the purchase.
Expansion to the United States strengthens the international presence of Cencosud, a holding company that has a market capitalization of about US$4.5 billion, operates in five countries and in 2021 recorded consolidated sales of almost US$14 billion. Thus, the operation in the United States would weigh slightly less than what Argentina contributes today (16.7%), but more than Brazil (10.1%), Peru (8.4%) and Colombia (7.4%). Chile, the country of origin of the conglomerate founded in 1963, contributed 57.4% of sales and 72% of Ebitda last year, according to the company’s balance sheets for last year.
“In income termsthe USA would represent -if in 2021 they had had the chain on their balance sheet- 12% of the sale of Cencosud, and if one looks at the EBITDA, it would come to represent 12%”, said Videla at the beginning of May.
On that occasion, the general manager of the company ruled out an IPO in the North American market.