17 stores of Diona-Zagreb have been acquired by Lonia d.d.

March 2014 — Dinova-Diona d.o.o. (Diona), based in Croatia, has sold Diona-Zagreb's 17 stores to Lonia d.d. for an undisclosed consideration.

Diona-Zagreb is the business unit of the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) retail network under the Diona brand, which consists of 17 supermarkets in the Zagreb area.

Lonia d.d. is a FMCG retail chain with regional presence through 130 stores, mainly in a convenient store format. It is ranked within the top 15 retail chains in Croatia.

Dinova-Diona d.o.o. is one of the oldest Croatian FMCG retailers, established more than 60 years ago. It has over 200 stores throughout Croatia, primarily in a supermarket format. Diona is owned by one of the largest meat processing companies in Croatia. The owners decided to exit the retail business and refocus on its core business.

Our role in the transaction

The whole project lasted more than a year and was successfully completed in a series of five separate transactions. Oaklins' team in Croatia acted as exclusive advisor to the seller in all five transactions. Our team was invited to develop several exit options and to propose the best one that would satisfy most of the pre-agreed seller's goals. Following our analysis, Diona's retail business was divided into several business units, based on a combination of geographical and store format criteria. Some of the business units were tailor-made to best suit the acquisition criteria. The business units were then directly offered to several strategic partners. The deal was structured in such a way that the buyers were offered to acquire the business, in-store equipment and inventories, and take over the employees, while the seller retained ownership over all the stores, which were rented to the buyers.