TALLINN - Finland's Kesko Food and Sweden's ICA are still not revealing details of their cooperation in the Baltics even though they have set up a joint venture in the three countries to compete against the growing strength of VP Market.
"As long as the merger has not been approved by the competition authorities, we would not like to speculate on what the nature of our cooperation will be," Seppo Hamalainen, board chairman of the joint venture and Kesko Food vice president, said.
He added, however, that for the time being there was no fear that the Citymarket trade mark would disappear from the Estonian market or the chain stores would be taken over by ICA's Rimi chain next spring.
"We will carefully watch developments on the Estonian retail market and will make decisions accordingly," Hamalainen said. "Not all rumors one can hear in Estonia should be taken seriously."
Karmo Kaas-Lutsberg, CEO of OU Rimi Eesti (Rimi Estonia), did not comment on whether his chain would take over the Citymarket stores in Estonia. "We need an OK from the competition authorities," he said.
In June, Kesko and ICA said they were setting up a joint venture under which the two companies will hand over operations of their Baltic grocery stores to companies registered in Sweden. The total value of the assets belonging to the Kesko Group in the deal is 110 million euros, though the company will make additional investments in the joint venture.
