Supermarket chain Aeon Co. said Thursday it has succeeded in raising its stake in Daiei Inc. to 44.24 percent from 19.89 percent through a tender offer to make the smaller rival retailer a subsidiary.
In response to the tender offer conducted from July 25 to Aug. 21, trading house Marubeni Corp., Daiei's leading shareholder, agreed to sell most of its stake in Daiei. Marubeni's shareholding in Daiei will be lowered to 5.0 percent from 29.35 percent upon the share transfer next Tuesday.
The value of share acquisition is about ¥13 billion, Aeon said.
Although Aeon will not have a majority stake, it will be able to make Daiei a subsidiary because a majority of Daiei board members come from Aeon.
On Thursday, Aeon and Daiei launched a special sales event at about 1,000 outlets nationwide to commemorate Daiei becoming an Aeon subsidiary.