Takeover in Germany

A takeover was announced yesterday, 9 November, in the German DIY market. The owners of the Hellweg DIY chain, the Semer family, have acquired the DIY stores and garden centres of Baywa. As of 1 January 2012, Baywa AG is hiving off its DIY store division into a new company in which Semer has a 50 per cent holding. This stake will be raised gradually to 100 per cent, with the total purchase price said to be € 28 mio. The company will be managed by Werner Carl, former head of the DIY and garden centre division of Baywa, and Christoph Semer.56 Baywa stores will be transferred to the new company, which will continue to trade under this brand. The buildings will remain in the ownership of Baywa AG, which will also retain 15 stores. Depending on the local conditions, these will be assigned to the Building Materials, Agricultural Trade and Agricultural Equipment business units in which Baywa, one of the big Raiffeisen cooperatives in Germany, is active. No changes are reported to be taking place to 22 independent franchise businesses also affiliated to the company. Nor are the building materials business and the activities of the 541 franchise stores in Austria (including 177 with a retail area in excess of 400 m2) or of the nearly 100 franchise locations in Italy affected by the transaction, which still has to be approved by the cartel authorities.