Damien Kantor
11/02/2020 7:45 PM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 11/02/2020 7:45 PM
Walmart set a date for its withdrawal from Argentina.
Before the end of the year
, the supermarket chain will try to close the sale of its local operation (92 branches, 3 production centers and 8,500 employees)
to one of the 3 interested business groups
.
The search for a buyer, interrupted during the quarantine, accelerated this weekend with the selection of the candidates:
Francisco De Narváez, Inverlat -the owner of Havanna- and a consortium in which the Carval fund (Cargill) and the logistics entrepreneur Oscar Andreani
.
The negotiations are in charge of Citibank and are kept in absolute reserve.
But it turned out that
the
due diligence
process has
already begun
, a key audit in which all the company's numbers are evaluated: billing, profitability, costs and margins.
With the results in sight, the candidates will later put their offers on the table for Walmart to define.
"
The sale contemplates the transfer of 80 to 100% of the assets,
" said a source familiar with the negotiation.
Walmart's departure comes at a difficult time for supermarkets.
In billing, it
is the 4th chain in the country
behind Carrefour, Cencosud (Jumbo, Disco and Vea) and Coto.
The data is relevant for the appraisal, but it is not the only one.
Of all the points of sale and production, the chain owns 68 buildings.
The rest are rented.
What is out of the question is the transfer of the Walmart brand, which
will be withdrawn from the Argentine market within a period to be agreed with the buyer
.
Not so Changomas or Punto Mayorista, which will be part of the package.
The North American company has been in the country for 25 years.
Its exit takes place in the framework of a global restructuring of the business and the closure of some markets, including England and Brazil.
The main objective of the parent company today is to
strengthen its presence in the United States
, where it faces the challenge of new competitors, such as Amazon.
The sales proposal began to circulate in February and was offered to several entrepreneurs, including Coto and Eduardo Eurnekian.
"
At the beginning there were more than 10 interested parties,
and despite the pandemic and the crisis, very few came down," they point out.
Beyond the figure and the modality, ultimately the operation
must be approved by the Defense of Competition
.
A key aspect is the origin of the investor.
In this sense, none of the 3 candidates has a chain in the country, which facilitates the process.
But all have a long history in the field.
For example, De Narváez's family owned Casa Tía for many years.
With Francisco at the helm, they entered the supermarket until its sale in 1999. De Narváez did not leave the business:
today he has supermarkets in Ecuador and Uruguay, which operate under the Ta-Ta brand.
Also in the pulse is the Inverlat fund, which controls Havanna and Fenoglio.
Integrated among others by 3 former Citibank, Guillermo Stanley, Damián Pozzoli and Carlos Giovanelli, the firm is trying to enter the retail world.
He first tried his luck with Garbarino, with no luck, and now he's behind Sodimac, Falabella's specialist home improvement brand, which is also for sale.
Connoisseurs point out that
assets in Argentina are very low
and that the crisis offers opportunities.
Without going any further, two weeks ago
the cell phone manufacturer Brightstar sold its two plants in Tierra del Fuego for US $ 1
.
The third party interested in Walmart is a consortium of investors and entrepreneurs, made up of
Carval, Andreani, two brothers (Fabián and Gustavo Papini) and Diego Solá Prats
.
The last three have proven scrolls in the supermarket.
The Papinis worked at Tía until it was sold, while Solá Prats was Jumbo's general manager in Argentina.
The consortium was created precisely
to bid for the local Walmart subsidiary
.
The links intersect: because De Narváez today has several former Walmart in its supermarkets in Ecuador and Uruguay.
Some steps are missing to close the story.
Once the
due diligence is completed
, the candidates will submit their offers to Walmart for consideration.
Although the amount remains to be defined, the market believes that the figure will be well below other similar operations.
"Casa Tía was sold for US $ 630 million and Disco, for more than US $ 300 million. Walmart is far below that," said one operator.