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“The merger project between Société de Distribution Aéroportuaire and Duty Free Paris is a new milestone in the collaboration between Aéroports de Paris and Lagardère Services“ |
Pierre Graff Chairman and CEO Aéroports de Paris |
FRANCE. Aéroports de Paris (AdP) and Aelia announced today (Monday) that they plan to merge the interests of Duty Free Paris and Société de Distribution Aéroportuaire (an AdP/Aelia joint venture) if the French travel retailer completes, as expected, the buy-out of The Nuance Group’s stake in Duty Free Paris.
As reported on 23 March, Aelia – part of the Lagardère Services group – submitted an offer for the acquisition of all of the shares Nuance owns in Duty Free Paris, a joint venture equally owned by AdP and Nuance.
Duty Free Paris operates fashion and accessories retail outlets at Paris Charles de Gaulle and Paris Orly airports. AdP and Nuance have granted Aelia negotiation exclusivity for a period of two months, renewable once, during which Aelia, The Nuance Group and AdP will negotiate the terms of this possible acquisition.
In a statement tonight AdP and Aelia said: “If this project is carried through, Aéroports de Paris and Aelia will jointly own two companies operating retail outlets in airports. In this context, Aéroports de Paris and Aelia have started discussions in order to group their activities together in a single entity – the Société de Distribution Aéroportuaire.
“At the same time, Aelia plans to include in this structure its fashion and accessories activities operated by its fully owned subsidiary Duty Free Associates.
“This operation would allow [the two companies] to pool resources, to work on common development projects and on opportunities to create additional sales and to generate synergies on costs.”
Subject to prior approval by the competition authorities, implementation of the project could be started as early as this summer, the partners said.
Société de Distribution Aéroportuaire would then operate 115 outlets across all Charles de Gaulle and Orly terminals, including 70 dedicated to core business and 45 dedicated to fashion & accessories.
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“This is a major development for our group in the fashion and accessories segment“ |
Jean-Baptiste Morin Chairman and CEO Aelia |
Aéroports de Paris Chairman and CEO Pierre Graff said: “The merger project between Société de Distribution Aéroportuaire and Duty Free Paris is a new milestone in the collaboration between Aéroports de Paris and Lagardère Services.
“Following on the establishment of a first joint venture in alcohol/tobacco/cosmetics and gastronomy activities, our two companies are deepening their partnership through fashion and accessories activities, which are very popular among our passengers.
“We are convinced that this partnership will allow us to reach our ambition to become the referent of travel retail in Europe and to provide our customers with a unique experience.”
Aelia Chairman Jean-Baptiste Morin said: “This project between Société de Distribution Aéroportuaire and Duty Free Paris marks a new step in the development of the very successful cooperation between Aéroports de Paris and Lagardère Services to which Aelia belongs.
“This is a major development for our group in the fashion and accessories segment that confirms the relevance of multi-category development strategy in travel retail.”
ABOUT AÉROPORTS DE PARIS
Aéroports de Paris builds, develops and manages airports including Paris Charles de Gaulle, Paris Orly and Paris Le Bourget. With 83 million passengers handled in 2010, Aéroports de Paris is Europe’s second-largest
airport group in terms of passenger traffic. The group is pursuing a strategy of adapting and modernising its terminal facilities and upgrading quality of services. It also intends to develop its retail and real estate business.
ABOUT AELIA
Aelia is the core “˜duty free and luxury’ competence and branding centre of LS Travel Retail EMEA, a division
of the Lagardère Services group. LS Travel Retail EMEA operates stores in a dozen countries across Europe
and offers a wide range of travel retail concepts.
It is the leading news & convenience travel retailer in the region and the operator of the Relay concept; in 28 European platforms the company also operates multi- and mono-category duty free stores, multi and monobrand fashion stores, speciality gift stores, gourmet food stores and food & beverage outlets.
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