Walmart Seeks to Buy Chilean Retailer

Walmart Stores Inc. (Bentonville, Ark.) has announced it will launch a tender offer to acquire Distribucion y Servicio D&S S.A. (Santiago, Chile), a grocery, supermarket and hypermarket conglomerate.

“Moving into Chile is an important step in implementing Walmart International's strategy,” said vice chairman Michael Duke. “A successful tender offer will give Wal-Mart the opportunity to be a significant participant in Chile, which continues to have a strong and growing economy among South America countries.”

Walmart has set, as a minimum condition of the tender offer, the acquisition of at least 50.01 percent of the South American company’s fully diluted common shares. In order to demonstrate their support for the offer, the Ibanez family, the existing controlling stockholders of D&S, has agreed to tender a portion of their shares. These controlling shareholders will enter into a long-term stockholders' agreement, with D&S continuing to operate with its existing leadership, associates and brands.

D&S is made up of a group of companies whose core business is food retail through different supermarket and hypermarket formats throughout Chile, covering the entire country, from Arica to Punta Arenas.