Puregold buys Parco supermarket chain

Supermarket chain Puregold Price Club Inc. said Monday that it had acquired all the stores of the Gant Group of Companies, which operates smaller retail rival Parco supermarkets.

In a statement to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Puregold said it had bought all of Parco’s 19 operating outlets by purchasing all of the outstanding shares of stocks of the seller.

The listed supermarket chain—owned by businessman Lucio Co—did not reveal the exact acquisition price, saying only that it was worth “less than 10 percent of the book value of Puregold” as of the end of the first quarter of this year.

The acquisition would be paid in cash from Puregold’s internally generated funds, it said in the statement.

At the end of 2011, Puregold’s stockholders’ equity, which is an approximation of a firm’s book value, stood at P9.3 billion, indicating that the acquisition price would be in the vicinity of P900 million.

Twelve Parco stores are located at Metro Manila, with three other stores located north of Metro Manila and four more in the south.

“This acquisition transaction involving the 19 Parco supermarkets closely came after the approval by the stockholders on May 8, 2012, of the acquisition of 100 percent equity interest of the sellers in Kareila Management Corp., operator of the S&R warehouse membership shopping clubs in six locations in Metro Manila, Pampanga and Cebu,” the company said.

With the two acquisitions, Puregold now operates a total of 131 outlets, broken down into 106 Puregold stores, 19 Parco Supermarkets and six S&R membership shopping clubs.

In terms of geographic locations, 71 of the 131 stores are in Metro Manila, 22 stores north of Metro Manila, 37 stores south of Metro Manila and one store in the Visayas.

“The acquisition of the 19 Parco supermarkets is expected to be closed within May,” the company added.

In the meantime, Puregold expects to finalize the payment for the acquisition of the S&R warehouse membership shopping chain by the end of June 2012, it added.