FRANKFURT, (AFP) - Spar, Germany's eighth-biggest food supermarket chain, plans to sell a 50-percent stake in its discount arm Netto to its French parent company ITM Entreprises, Spar's new chairman Stephan Schelo said in a newspaper interview.
"By selling the unit, we want to increase our hidden reserves and it'll mean we'll also receive three-digit-millions in financial aid from our parent copany," Schelo told the business daily Handelsblatt.
The sale of the stake could raise an estimated 100-200 million euros, the newpaper quoted sources close to Spar as saying.
ITM holds a 97.27-percent stake in Spar.
The sale must be approved by Netto's other shareholder, Danish supermarket chain Dansk Supermarket.
Netto operates 1,178 supermarkets in Germany.
In addition to Netto, Spar also holds a stake in another discounter, Netto Schels and that shareholding would also be examined, Schelo said.
"In the case of Netto Schels, we're examining a number of options, including the sale to a third party, to our parent company or whether we'll keep it ourselves," Schelo sid.