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Düsseldorf (dpa) - After years of dispute, the electronics retailer Ceconomy has reached an agreement with the Kellerhals family about their share in the Media-Saturn-Holding.
Ceconomy will take over the 21.62 percent stake held by the family holding Convergenta, Ceconomy announced on Monday evening in Düsseldorf.
In return, Convergenta will receive up to 29.99 percent of Ceconomy and become its largest shareholder.
Ceconomy's two most important stores are the two electronics chains Media Markt and Saturn.
The relationship between Ceconomy and the now deceased Media Markt co-founder Erich Kellerhals was repeatedly shaped by disputes about supremacy and direction at Media-Saturn.
These go back to the time well before the split from Ceconomy by the retail group Metro in 2017 and some of them were carried out in court.
"With this agreement, we have left the time of past conflicts behind us and have found a good solution for everyone involved," commented Ceconomy boss Bernd Düttmann.
With the reorganization of the shareholder structure, Ceconomy wants to simplify the complex structure of the group.
Media-Markt-Saturn will become a 100 percent subsidiary of Ceconomy.
Ceconomy hopes that this will reduce complexity and improve processes.
The transaction will in particular make use of Ceconomy's tax loss carryforwards, each amounting to around 1.2 billion euros in corporate income and trade tax, the company announced.
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The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of March 2021 at the earliest.
The general meeting has yet to approve the deal.
It is scheduled for February 17th.
The current main shareholders have already individually indicated their approval of the transaction to the Management Board.
The major shareholders most recently included the Haniel family with almost 23 percent, the Meridian Foundation of Metro co-founder Schmidt-Ruthenbeck (14.2 percent), Beisheim Holding (6.6 percent) and the telecommunications group Freenet (9.1 percent) .
Jürgen Kellerhals spoke of “constructive discussions”.
Convergenta is pleased to become the company's anchor shareholder.
"We aim to promote the transformation of the company in the medium term through participation in the supervisory board and to support its sustainable development," he explained.