Ljubljana - Alfi, Slovenia's largest private equity fund, has singed a EUR 50 million deal to acquire the hardware retailer Merkur Trgovina from HPS Investment Partners of the US, the newspaper Finance reports.

According to the paper, Merkur's retail activity will be transferred to Alfi next year after the transaction has been cleared by the market regulator.

The transaction, valued at roughly 50 million, does not include store premises. Merkur Trgovina has been leasee at shopping centres owned by Merkur before it ended up in receivership.

US fund HPS Investment Partners bought Merkur's retail business from the bankruptcy estate in July 2017 for EUR 28.56 million before acquiring 13 Merkur shopping centres from Heta, the Austrian bad bank, for EUR 49 million.

Two years ago, HPS sold 15 Merkur stores and shopping centres across the country for EUR 100 million to LCN Capital Partners, another fund which also owns a 2% stake in Merkur Trgovina.

LCN will continue as the lessor in the future and has already extended rental contracts for a long term.

Merkur generated a net profit of EUR 250,000 on EUR 220 million in revenue last year when stores were affected by lockdown. In 2019 it made EUR 4.8 million in net profit on EUR 237 million in revenue.

Alfi has been active acquiring assets in Slovenia. It has been consolidating private veterinary hospitals and private health centres providing image diagnostics. It has also acquired grocer Tuš from creditors and bought Trival, an antennas provider.