Axfood ends attempt to acquire Tradeka's retail business

Axfood ends attempt to acquire Tradeka's retail business One of Axfood's strategies is to grow in the Nordic region. Since the merger in 2000, Axfood owns shares in Spar Finland - a holding that has grown and which today accounts for 75% of the votes and 69% of the capital. A key goal has been to grow in Finland, since the 8% market share is too low from a long-term perspective. The Finnish food chain, Tradeka, was identified as a potential future partner. "Following a period of careful evaluation of Tradeka's store and wholesale structure, as well as the store concept, Axfood's board has decided to end its attempts to acquire Tradeka's retail business," says Mats Jansson, President and CEO of Axfood. "However, we are sticking to our strategy of growth in the Nordic region," says Jansson. "Since Axfood's start we have pursued an investment and growth strategy that aims to achieve the best possible return for our shareholders, regardless of whether it concerns an individual store acquisition or a large company." For further information, please contact: Mats Jansson, President and CEO, Axfood AB, tel. +46-70-569 48 11 Bodil Eriksson, Executive Vice President, Corporate Communication, Axfood, tel. +46-706-29 66 34 Axfood AB is a retail food group comprising the wholly owned store chains Hemköp, Willys and Willys hemma and wholesale operations through Dagab and Axfood Närlivs. Additionally, Axfood works with a large number of independent merchants who are tied to Axfood by franchising or other agreements. In all the Group comprises some 500 stores in Sweden, of which about 220 are wholly or partly owned. Consolidated annual sales are approximately SEK 33 billion, with approximately 8,600 employees. Axfood has approximately 290 stores in Finland, of which 80 are wholly owned and the remainder are operated by independent merchants. Axfood has a market share of 18% in Sweden and approximately 8% in Finland, making it one of the largest, listed retail food groups in the Nordic region. The company is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange 0-List, Attract 40. Axel Johnson AB is the principal owner with approximately 45% of the shares. ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/04/26/20040426BIT20490/wkr0001.pdf The entire release