Sligro Food Group N.V. (ENXTAM:SLIGR) entered into an agreement to acquire Majority stake in Metro activities in Belgium from Makro Cash & Carry Belgium N.V. for €47 million on December 7, 2022. Before the announcement of the court-supervised restructuring, the Metro sites and associated delivery services acquired by Sligro Food Group generated annual revenue of approximately €300 million. ING Corporate Finance acted as financial advisor to Sligro Food Group N.V. In the court-supervised restructuring proceedings for Makro Cash & Carry Belgium NV, the court in Antwerp authorised the court-appointed judicial trustees on 7 December 2022 to sell the majority of the Metro activities in Belgium to Sligro Food Group.

An appeal was filed against this decision by the Antwerp court, but on 30 March 2022 the Antwerp Court of Appeal rejected the arguments made in the appeal. The Belgian Competition Authority (BCA) already invested a great deal of time and energy in investigating the market consequences during the course of the court-supervised restructuring. On the basis of its preliminary investigation, the BCA had previously issued an ‘unconditional decision to grant an exemption’, which meant that the transaction could already go ahead.

Today, 3 April 2023, the Belgium Competition Authority (BCA) gave its final, unconditional approval of the transaction.