Dixons to sell European property business
Codic sold to Belgian consortium
December 9 2003
Dixons has sold its 90 per cent holding in European property developer Codic for €33.3m.
The buyers, a group of Belgian investors backing the existing Codic management team, are taking on €41.7m of debt as part of the deal.
Dixons took a majority stake in Codic in 1985. It develops retail projects, offices and business parks in Belgium, Luxembourg and France. Codic developments are not related to Dixons’ own store development programme.
Codic’s sister company, Codic GmbH is excluded from the sale, with Dixons already having put measure in place to exit the German development market.
Jeremy Darroch, group finance director, said: “Codic is a successful company. However its developments are unrelated to Dixons’ core retail business. Realising net asset value for this business provides Dixons with the opportunity to exit, on attractive terms, the European property development market, in order to focus on our core retail operations.”
