ÚOHS allowed the Hungarian group Oriens to buy the retail chain Hruška

The Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) has allowed the Hungarian group Oriens to buy the retail chain Hruška, which has stores mainly in Moravia, and Sempronemo, a company that manages and leases real estate.

"As part of the administrative proceedings, the Authority mainly assessed the impact in the area of retail sales of daily necessities, focusing on the entire Czech Republic and then on districts and cities where the activities of the merging parties overlap. After assessing the situation, the Authority decided that the merger would not significantly impede competition. The Authority came to the same conclusion after assessing the impact of the merger on other markets, such as the production and wholesale of fresh bread, rolls and other bakery products, the Authority said in its report.

Oriens is acquiring both companies through Central European Retail Holding, whose managing directors are the group's founders Flóra Macherová and Krisztián Orbán and whose 100 % shareholder is Oriens. Central European Retail Holding has been owned by Oriens since September 2023.

The Hruška chain, based in Ostrava, has stores mainly in Moravia, Silesia and eastern Bohemia. The company is owned by three partners, Pavel Hruzik, Jarmila Plevová and Jana Škrabalová. The transaction also involves the takeover of Sempronemo in Ostrava.

According to its last published annual report, Hruška generated sales of CZK 7.78bn in 2022, down CZK 374.2m year-on-year, and net profit of CZK 156.5m. In 2022, Hruska operated 434 of its own stores and provided a unified sales policy for 581 outlets. It employed over 3,000 people.

Oriens is a privately owned industrial holding company with a focus on private equity funds in the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia. As of 2021, Oriens Group includes Flosman, which operates the Flop grocery store chain and wholesale business in the Czech Republic. In the Czech Republic, Oriens also controls Moravia Containers, which manufactures modular buildings and containers. Last year, it bought Steelmart, a metallurgical materials trader from Huštěnovice in the Uherské Hradiště region, Sanborn, a supplier of components and specialised parts for the energy, oil and gas and transport industries from Velký Meziříčí, and a stake in Gastro-menu Express from Třinec in the Frýdek-Místek region. In July, the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection announced that Oriens may buy another food chain in the Czech Republic, Pramen CZ.

Source: ÚOHS and CTK