The largest food retail transaction in Serbian history successfully completed yesterday, with CMS in Brussels, London and Belgrade, successfully advising Delhaize Group in relation to the acquisition of Delta Maxi Group. Delta Maxi is the leading Serbian food retail company which operates more than 450 stores in five Southeastern European countries (Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania).

In March of this year, Delhaize Group, the Belgian international food retailer present in six countries, entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of the retail company Delta Maxi Group for a purchase price of EUR 932.5 million including net debt of approximately EUR 300 million. Combined with its existing operations in Greece and Romania, the acquisition of Delta Maxi Group makes Delhaize Group a leading retailer in Southeastern Europe. 

CMS corporate partners Vincent Dirckx (CMS Brussels), Louise Wallace (CMS London) and Natasa Zavisin (CMS Belgrade) jointly commented, “We are delighted to have successfully completed this deal. This transaction showed CMS at its best, true co-operation across nine jurisdictions to ensure a successful transaction for Delhaize Group. Delhaize is a client of CMS DeBacker who have been advising on the initial phase of the deal structuring and of the negotiation of the overall terms of the transaction, with the London and Serbian team advising and leading the negotiation in connection with the sale and purchase arrangements and completion mechanics. This has been an extremely labour intensive project, involving numerous jurisdictions and we are very pleased to have been able to successfully support Delhaize Group on their acquisition.” 

Nataša Zavišin and Stojan Semiz from CMS Belgrade acted for Delhaize in connection with the due diligence in Serbia and completion mechanics and Atanas Bangachev in Bulgaria. Local lawyers, Nedzida Salihovic-Whalen acted in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kalo (Sophia Darling) assisted on Albanian issues. Roman Tarlavski of CMS Amsterdam and Julien Leclère of CMS Luxembourg also assisted on certain Dutch and Luxembourg law issues.

In Brussels, the team was led by Vincent Dirckx, supported by senior associates Razvan Emanoil with assistance of partner Carl Dotremont and assocaties Olivier Van Raemdonck and Mathilde Neumann on competition matters.

In London, Louise Wallace led the transaction assisted by senior associates James Parkes and John O’Connor, with assistance from Jessie Oldnall and Laura Davis in connection with the Transactional Services Agreement and Anna Burchner and Harpreet Chatha supporting on tax.

Delhaize Group has retained Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Raffeisenbank as financial advisors for this transaction. 

Clifford Chance (London) and Nenad Popovic of Jankovic, Popovic & Mitic o.d. acted for the seller group, ultimately owned by Miroslav Miskovic.