Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky has become the largest shareholder of Fnac Darty, exceeding the threshold of 25% of the capital, according to a statement published on Wednesday March 22 by the stock market regulator.
The Billionaire “plans to continue” its increase in the capital of the distributor, via its company under Luxembourg law, Vesa Equity Investment, but “does not intend” to take control of Fnac Darty over the next six months, is it specified in this document from the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF). Nor does he intend “to solicit the appointment of one or more members to the Board of Directors”can we still read.
In July 2022, Mr. Kretinsky, also an exclusive candidate for the takeover of Editis, declared that he had crossed the threshold of 20% of the capital and voting rights of the distribution group.
He was then the second largest shareholder of Fnac Darty with 23% of the capital and voting rights of Fnac Darty, behind the German distributor of electronic products Ceconomy, which held 24.2% of the capital as of December 31, 2022, according to the document. official registration of the group as of December 31, 2022.
The group thus has three major shareholders in its capital, including Indexia, the former SFAM group, a telephone insurer, which held just over 11.3% of the capital in December 2022.
In February 2023, the Fnac Darty group announced that it had fallen 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 a thousand stores and is also established in Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Tunisia, Qatar, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Congo and Senegal.