LONDON - The Swedish investment company Hakon Invest agreed on Monday to buy the remaining stake in the Nordic retailer ICA that it does not already own for 20 billion Swedish kronor, or $3.1 billion.
Under the terms of the deal, Hakon Invest will acquire a 60 percent stake in ICA, which operates supermarkets in Sweden, Norway and the Baltic countries, from the Dutch retailer Ahold, which owns the Giant retail chain in the United States.
In September, Ahold announced that it was considering the sale of its holding in ICA to focus on businesses in which it retained full control. The Dutch retailer and Hakon Invest had shared equal control over the management of ICA, which runs more than 2,000 stores across the Nordic region.
“The deal strengthens the conditions for continued satisfactory ad stable dividends to our shareholders,†Hakon Invest’s chairman, Hannu Ryöppönen, said in a statement.
The Swedish investment company will use existing cash reserves and bank financing to fund the deal, according to a company statement. After completing the deal, Hakon Invest said it would repay the debt financing through a share issuance of 5 billion kronor to existing investors.
Shares in Ahold rose 4.3 percent Monday in early morning trading in Amsterdam.
Hakon Invest’s stock price also jumped almost 17 percent in early morning trading in Stockholm on Monday. The Swedish investment company plans to change its name to ICA Gruppen after completing the deal.
The companies added that they had agreed to pay themselves a dividend totalling 2 billion kronor from ICA, of which Ahold would receive 1.2 billion kronor.
The deal for ICA is expected to close by the end of the second quarter of this year.
