The Polish company Allegro has agreed to take over a 100% stake in the Czech group of e-shops Mall Group and in the courier company WeDo. The total value of the transaction is up to 975 million euros (approximately 24.7 billion CZK), said Rockaway Capital in a press release. Together with the investment groups PPF and EC Investments, it is the current co-owner of the Mall Group. The malls were bought in 2016 together with the comparator Heureka.cz for more than 200 million euros, ie about 5.4 billion CZK.
PPF investment group and EC Investments control Daniel Křetínský in Mall Group 40 percent each, Jakub Havrlant’s Rockaway has a fifth share. The transaction is subject to the usual antitrust and regulatory approvals and is expected to close by the end of the first half of 2022. Once completed, it will be one of the largest transactions in Central and Eastern Europe and the fifth largest transaction in the Czech Republic in ten years.
“For the Rockaway Capital group, this is the biggest business in its history and at the same time the culmination of a story we started writing in 2014, when we bet on e-commerce and started building E-commerce Holding,” said Rockaway Capital founder Jakub Havrlant According to him, the Mall Group was sold in a situation that is a combination of successful results of the company, investor interest and a favorable market situation.
Allegro buys Mall Group and WeDo for EUR 881 million (CZK 22.3 billion), which is based on a fixed valuation of EUR 925 million (CZK 23.5 billion) adjusted for debt and similar items of EUR 44 million. The final price can be increased by up to 50 million euros (CZK 1.3 billion) depending on the performance of the Mall Group.
About 47 percent of the price will be paid for in Allegra shares. “So the existing shareholders of Mall Group will continue to participate in this story,” said Rock Kaway Capital spokesman Pavel Kalouš.
In addition to the Mall internet marketplace, the Mall Group includes, for example, the CZC.cz e-shop with electronics. Until now, the role of the managing shareholder has belonged to the Rockaway Group. The transaction does not concern Vivantis, Mall Pay, or Mall.TV and Košík.cz, which have already been separated from the Mall Group in the past.
“With the incorporation of the Mall Group, our presence in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and Croatia, equivalent to more than € 250 billion and more than 70 million people, will also be the basis for building a strong international team in the field. technology, e-commerce and logistics, “said Allegra François Nuyts, CEO of Allegra.
In the business year ending March 31 this year, Mall Group increased its turnover by 26 percent to 20.7 billion crowns and ended up in profit for the first time. The number of orders increased by 31 percent year on year to 14 million.
The WeDo courier company was established last autumn on the basis of the takeover of the then InTime courier service and the Uloženka network of dispensing points. In the first year of its existence, it transported almost ten million shipments. As in the case of Mall Froup, the co-owners of WeDo are PPF, EC Investments and Rockaway Capital.
According to Adam Kurzok from Expando, Mallu was a great success. “The acquisition is the result of a long-term transformation from an e-shop to a marketplace, where Allegro does not actually sell goods, but only mediates them. Thanks to its dominant position in Poland, it ranks among the ten largest markets in Europe and “It trades for a market value of over 260 billion crowns, despite the fact that it operates only on the Polish market.
According to David Tajzich, Executive Director of Investment Banking at Wood & Company, the business reflects the increased attractiveness of the e-commerce sector in the recent period. “This is great news and success for selling shareholders. Allegro is showing its acquisition and consolidation potential following a very successful IPO last fall,” he added.
