It’s Official, A New $6 Billion Travel Retail Giant is Born: Dufry Buys Autogrill

This deal has been rumored and in the works for many months now: Switzerland headquartered travel duty free and retail firm Dufry has agreed to buy Autogrill from Italian billionaire Benetton family, creating a new $6 billion player in the travel retail market, reports Bloomberg. The combined group will have 5,500 outlets at around 1,200 airports and other locations.

From the release announcing the deal: Upon completion of the transaction, the combined group will adopt a new name with a new identity. Edizione, which currently owns a 50.3% stake in Autogrill, will become the largest shareholder of the new group, of which it will hold a stake of approximately between about 25% and 20% at the end of the transaction, depending on the level of subscription to the mandatory tender exchange offer.Juan Carlos Torres and Xavier Rossinyol will be respectively Executive Chairman and CEO of the new group.

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