Esselunga in the sights of China. The chain of hypermarkets founded by Bernardo Caprotti and now owned by his heirs – far from on good terms with each other – would have received an unsolicited expression of interest from the group Yida International Investment, a conglomerate with interests in real estate, alternative energy, health care and mining.
La Repubblica wrote it, specifying that the Chinese would have put 7,5 billion euros on the plate, a sum almost a quarter higher than the valuations of between 4 and 6 billion (depending on whether or not real estate assets are included) made last September by the private equity funds Blackstone and CVC before the death of Bernardo Caprotti.
The new (yet another) indiscretion about a possible international offer comes at a time of particularly heated discussion on the future of the leading Italian large-scale retail chain.
In his will, Caprotti had asked to sell Esselunga entirely to an international group in the distribution sector and not to a group or consortium of Italian entrepreneurs. At the moment, however, a solution of dynastic continuity is looming, with Marina Caprotti at the top of the company in which she controls, together with her mother Giuliana Albera, 70% of the capital.
The other large company of the group, Villata Participations, which owns the real estate properties, is 55% owned by the mother-daughter couple Marina Caprotti Giuliana Albera and the remaining 45%, with an equal share by the two other children of Bernardo Caprotti, Violetta and Giuseppe.
