There is only one takeover candidate left for Hema: Dutch investor fund Parcom and Jumbo owner Van Eerd are starting exclusive negotiations with the shareholders of the chain. Former owner Marcel Boekhoorn would no longer participate.
From three candidates to one
Only Parcom remains in the race for Hema: the Dutch investor pulled it off opposing candidate Alteri. Parcom receives the support of the Van Eerd family, the owners of supermarket chain Jumbo, with whom Hema has been working closely for a year now. Exclusive negotiations are currently underway with Hema’s creditors. Originally, former owner Marcel Boekhoorn himself also joined Parcom’s bid, but the entrepreneur would now be out of the picture, reports Het Financieele Dagblad.
There is great concern in the Netherlands that Hema would fall back into the hands of private equity players. Ex-owner Lion Capital left the department store chain with a mountain of debt worth hundreds of millions. Possibly this concern is also the reason why Alteri is no longer involved: the bankruptcy of Intertoys cost the Netherlands a lot of jobs and money, but the investor itself, as a creditor, still managed to get 41.4 million euros out of it. Alteri had the toy chain in its portfolio for barely a year and a half.
It is true that the deal with Parcom is by no means complete. There is still due diligence to be carried out and the investor is still looking for financing for the takeover. Next week, Hema will publish sales figures for the past quarter, which ended at the beginning of August.
