Circle K owner's takeover of Żabka moves closer after the European Commission raises no objection

Żabka Group said in a statement that "the FSR authority issued a decision raising no objection to the transaction". FSR is the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation. It is one of the conditions of the tender offer launched by Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard, which owns the Circle K chain of petrol stations.

The price

The buyer is offering PLN 32 per share. The offer covers 1,002,974,605 shares, worth about PLN 32 billion in total. The main shareholders have pledged to sell 57.245% of the shares. On Friday Żabka closed at PLN 31.70 on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

Timetable

Subscriptions run until 26 October. The transaction is due on 29 October and settlement on 3 November, but first the last approval, antitrust clearance, must come through.

It is another big deal involving a company associated with Poland. InPost, being taken over by a consortium that includes Advent and FedEx, will trade in Amsterdam until 22 October.