Acquisitions and disposals
During the last two years, Migros Group has acquired and sold various companies.
Transactions carried out in the 2019 financial year included the following:
Globus acquired the trademark of Navyboot, the Swiss premium shoe brand, together with a large number of its Swiss boutiques and its three outlet stores on 1 January 2019.
Estavayer Lait SA acquires majority of SoGood Holding B.V.
On 11 June 2019, Estavayer Lait SA (ELSA) acquired a 94.8% stake in SoGood Holding B.V., which in turn holds 100% of the shares of SoFine Foods B.V. (operating company for vegetarian products and dishes) and Sperwer Vastgoed B.V. (real estate company). The company was included in Migros Group with retroactive effect from 1 January 2019.
On 5 March 2019, the Hotelplan Group acquired all of the shares in the Croatian travel agency ABC home d.o.o., and subsequently changed the name to HHD d.o.o. (part of Hotelplan's Holiday Home Division). The company was included in Migros Group with retroactive effect from 1 January 2019. An asset deal also saw Hotelplan Group acquire business units in the United Kingdom (Flexiski) and in Switzerland (Reisebüro Eggenberg).
As far as the following transactions are concerned, the information relating to financial statements was unavailable at the time of the Migros Group financial statements being released. Consequently, the initial recognition of the business combination was not possible. Full consolidation in Migros Group will only be shown in 2020:
- Acquisition of vtours, an online travel company which has been primarily active in the German market to date, by the Hotelplan Group on 12 November 2019.
- Increase in the shareholding in Société immobilière du Marché de gros de l'alimentation (SIMGA) from 42.8% to 97.6% (previously entered in the balance sheet as an equity investment) on 20 December 2019 by the Migros Cooperative Geneva.
Migros Group wants to invest more heavily in its strategic core business and online commerce. As part of a regular review of its portfolio, Migros announced in June 2019 that it was seeking new owners for the retail chain Depot (Gries Deco Company abroad and in Switzerland), Globus, Interio and m-way, ones that could provide the foundations for the ongoing successful development of these companies.
Sale m-way
In the meantime, m-way AG, the market-leading e-bike retailer, was sold to Swiss E-Mobility Group AG at the end of September 2019. The buyer has retained all of the approximately 100 employees.
Abandonment of Interio brand
The Interio brand is being given up. The Austrian XXXLutz Group will acquire six Interio stores during the course of 2020. As far as the remaining five branch locations are concerned, Migros is negotiating with potential new tenants or is seeking further solutions. This decision allows Migros not only to free up funds to invest more heavily in its strategic business units, but also to focus on developing Micasa further.
The sale of Globus is proceeding as planned and is expected to be completed by the middle of next year.
For further details please see Note 39 and chapter C in the report on the financial situation as part of the complete financial reporting of the Migros Group.
