Blackstone joins Advent and TPG among the private equity firms that have declared to have interest in buying the retail business of Esselunga, the GDO (organized large distribution) italian important actor. Milano Finanza, writing on the subject, said that the interest is limited to the commercial part, not including the real estate area. The commercial part is represented by the management of the 153 stores and outlets owned by La Villata Investments (the family safe) which also owns 83 of the buildings where the supermarket are located and that are not part of the deal. Blackstone seems to have offered 6 billion euro, which is at least 9.5-10 times the 2015 Ebitda of Esselunga Group which has just a net debt of 116 million of Euros. In recent months, it was said, the founder of Esselunga, Bernardo Caprotti (91 years old next October 7th), received the advances of Advent International and more recently those of TPG, which, for this purpose, has mandated Morgan Stanely (you see La Repubblica).
