El Corte Inglés prepares its IPO before 2028

El Corte Inglés plans to go public before 2028 following the agreement reached with Mutua through which the insurer acquires 8% of the distribution group for €555 million, as reported to Europa Press in sources familiar with the agreement.

Specifically, the commitment of the group chaired by Martha Alvarez is to go public within six years from the signing of the agreement in October 2021 to thus give its partner a window of liquidity, although the same sources have not ruled out that it may even be earlier.

As reported this Monday by the newspaper ‘Expansión’, the commitment does not include an exact date nor a concrete roadmap, but there is a penalty for El Corte Inglés within the agreement between the two companies in the case of not making the leap to the parquet on the indicated deadline.

The distribution group has called an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders for next January 26 in order to give ‘green light’ to the entry of Mutua in the shareholding of El Corte Inglés, as well as approving the reduction of the share capital through the redemption of shares and fixing the number of members of the board of directors.

At the end of October last year, El Corte Inglés and Grupo Mutua sealed the agreement to develop a major strategic alliance whereby the insurance company becomes the exclusive provider of insurance and investment funds marketed by the distribution group between his 15 million customers, and that includes the entry into the shareholding of the Spanish distribution giant with 8%, valued at 555 million euros.

Specifically, with this alliance, Grupo Mutua will acquire 50.01% of each of the two companies that carry out the insurance activity of El Corte Inglés, that is, dry (Life and Accident Insurance) and CESS (Insurance brokerage) for an amount of 550 million euros.

The Mutua Group supports the future project of the Spanish company with the entry into its shareholding with a participation of 8% of its capital, coming from treasury stock, for 555 million euros, which values ​​the Spanish distribution giant at around 6,940 million euros.

The insurer will be represented on the board of directors of El Corte Inglés by its chairman and CEOIgnatius Garralda.

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