IKEA to buy remaining stake in shopping centres company

[STOCKHOLM] IKEA Group, the owner of most IKEA furniture stores and shopping centres, said on Tuesday it had agreed to buy the remaining stake in a company that owns shopping centres in the Nordics.

The acquisition of the 51 per cent stake in the business that owns centres in Sweden and Finland from IKEA's founding family means all IKEA-centered shopping centres are now fully owned by one company.

An IKEA Group spokeswoman declined to reveal the price tag for the 13 shopping centres that make up the remaining stake but said their combined market value was estimated at around one billion euros (S$1.49 billion).

When the deal is concluded, IKEA Group will own and operate 58 shopping centres across 13 markets.

The complex corporate structure that is IKEA, the world's biggest furniture maker, owns shopping centres centred around some of its IKEA stores.

Since the first one opened in 2001, the concept has expanded steadily as IKEA banks on its own budget furniture store attracting buyers to the shopping centres and vice versa.

In December, IKEA Group bought the remaining stake in the unit that runs shopping centres in Europe and China from Inter IKEA Group, and merged it with it its Russian centres business.

REUTERS