Large groups on the hunt for companies to acquire

There is an estimate, absolutely confidential, circulating among professional firms and merchant banks: in the large-scale retail sector there is a mass of liquidity of about EUR 1 billion for extraordinary transactions, i.e. development and acquisitions.

Various things are moving in the South, where the race to consolidate the sector began some time ago. The latest operations communicated to the market have been announced by Megamark, the historic Apulian group headed by Giovanni Pomarico (brands such as A&O, Dok, Famila etc.), which is also a leading player in cultural life with an important literary prize. Alongside Megamark are Intesa Sanpaolo (Imi Cib), Bnp Paribas and Bper, with fresh resources for development with new investments and acquisitions of local networks, for a group that, in addition to Puglia, also wants to grow significantly in Campania. And is therefore on the hunt for companies (and sales outlets) to accelerate the development of the network.

And now the spotlight is on what will happen to the complex and articulated Carrefour sales network. An original operation (perhaps the only one of its kind) has been announced and will be finalised by the end of the year as expected: to take over Carrefour will be the large food industrial group New Princes (milk, preserves, etc.) headed by Angelo Mastrolia, who has immediately said that he intends to invest heavily and relaunch the historic GS brand. It is hard to believe, however, that he will retain direct or indirect management of all the shops, over a thousand of them. It is possible that, as happened with Auchan, the abandonment of the Italian market by the French colossus will open a new race to buy outlets.

There are rumours in the industry, not too veiled, that the large mutinational discount groups - Lidl, Aldi - already have their list of options and positions. But they will have to reckon with Eurospin and Penny market, which will not miss out on the best opportunities.

The scenario sees aggregations accelerating. According to a Kpmg survey, large-scale distribution in Italy achieved a turnover of 135 billion (+1.8% on 2023). Fragmentation is still high: the cumulative market share of the top three groups is 41% compared to 69% in the Netherlands and 65% in Germany. Then there are the changes in purchasing habits (race for low prices) and the challenge of online distribution.