Last year in November, Lithuanian holding “Maxima Grupe” signed an investment agreement with “Emperia Holding S.A.” that controls a Polish retail chain “Stokrotka” and submitted a tender offer to acquire 100% of company’s shares on Warsaw Stock Exchange. Now the period to submit public offers has been extended until March 16.

“Considering the circumstances that the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection has not yet issued the permission for concentration of retail chains, “Maxima Grupe” extends the period to submit public offers to acquire 100% shares of “Emperia Holding S.A.”. We are expecting to receive the decision of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection in Poland any time now, therefore, we are extending the period to submit the offers until March 16”, says Petras Jašinskas, Chairman of the Board at “Maxima Grupe”.

As it was announced earlier, “Maxima Grupe” offers 100 zloty per share of “Emperia Holding S.A.” and the total price for all company’s shares amounts up to 1,192 million PLN (approximately 283 million euros). The conditions of the tender offer also say that “Maxima Grupe” may withdraw from the tender offer if less than 66% of shares are submitted or if other pre-agreed conditions are not met.

“Stokrotka“ chain in Poland controls 436 stores and has a market share of approximately 20% in the proximity store segment. The company employs 8,2 thousand employees and had the consolidated turnover of 2,451 million PLN at the end of year 2016.