Norway's Reitan Retail buys 114 Danish stores from Germany's Aldi

OSLO (Reuters) -Norway's Reitan Retail said on Friday it had agreed to buy 114 Danish grocery stores and three distribution centres from German rival Aldi for an undisclosed amount, boosting the Norwegian group's chain of Rema 1000 discount stores.

"This will significantly lift our Danish revenue and should make Rema 1000 the largest chain of grocery stores in Denmark," Reitan Retail Chief Executive Ole Robert Reitan told Reuters.

Before the transaction, Rema 1000 had around 330 grocery stores in Denmark.

The family-owned group declined to say how much it would pay for the new stores.

German discounter Aldi said in a statement the sale was part of a full exit from the Danish market, where it has a total of 188 stores. Aldi will instead focus on eight other key markets in Europe.

As part of the deal, around 1,200 of Aldi's total workforce of 2,800 will be made redundant, Aldi said.

Reitan Retail, comprising convenience stores, food retailers and petrol stations in the Nordic and Baltic region, announced in 2020 that it aimed to conduct an initial public offering but has yet to set a date for the planned listing.

"The IPO will happen when the right conditions are in place," Ole Robert Reitan said.

Reitan Retail, which has some 42,000 employees across seven countries, earlier this year reported an operating profit (EBIT) of 3.8 billion Norwegian crowns ($381 million) for 2021, down from 4.4 billion in 2020.

($1 = 9.9668 Norwegian crowns)

(Reporting by Terje Solsvik; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Susan Fenton)