Dairy Farm International, the retail arm of the Jardine Matheson group, said yesterday Centros Comerciales Continente had confirmed it would purchase the group's Spanish supermarket chain Simago.
Dairy Farm said the two sides had settled on an estimated sale price for Simago of 16.3 billion pesetas (about HK$843 million), but this could be adjusted following the release of Simago's 1997 trading results.
A total of 13.8 billion pesetas will be paid in cash upon the signing of the sales agreement expected early next year and the remainder will be paid in cash by the end of March.
The agreement was finalised yesterday morning after Continente, the Spanish unit of French retailer Promodes, completed its due diligence period undertaken after the two parties signed a preliminary agreement in October.
The sale will still require the approval of the European Commission but this is expected to be a formality.