After Editis, Daniel Kretinsky takes power in the Fnac Darty group. The Czech businessman has become the largest shareholder of the distributor, exceeding the threshold of 25% of the capital, according to a statement published Wednesday by the stock market regulator. The billionaire “plans to continue” his capital increase, via his Luxembourg company Vesa Equity Investment, but “does not intend” to take control of Fnac Darty over the next six months, it is specified. in this document from the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF). He also does not intend “to solicit the appointment of one or more members to the board of directors”, we can still read.
At the end of February, an article by BFM Business quoting anonymous sources said the Czech billionaire “ready to buy” Fnac Darty, by taking over the shares of the first shareholder, the German distributor Ceconomy, which held, as of December 31, 2022, 24.2% of the shares of Fnac Darty, according to the group’s universal registration document for 2022. This information had been neither confirmed nor denied by management, questioned in the process on the sidelines of the publication of the distributor’s annual results.
A network of nearly 1,000 stores
Questioned then by AFP, the general manager of the group, Enrique Martinez, had explained that it would not be “very difficult to [sa] part of taking the side of one shareholder rather than another”. He confined himself to saying that he had “good relations with his shareholders” and that “as long as there are no concrete things, we as management cannot position ourselves”. “The theme of market consolidation is still alive, and Fnac Darty is able to be a player and active in the consolidation of this market,” he told AFP.
The group also has Indexia, a former SFAM group, a telephony insurer in its capital, which is in the sights of the repression of fraud for “misleading commercial practices. At the end of 2022, Indexia held 11.3% of the capital of Fnac Darty. The Fnac Darty group has announced that it fell into the red in 2022 with a net loss of 32 million euros, due to a court decision in the United Kingdom concerning the sale in 2012 of the company Comet.
Mainly present in France, Fnac Darty has a network of nearly 1,000 stores and is also established in Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Tunisia, Qatar, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Congo and Senegal.