Firmo to buy Staples in Portugal

The Portuguese office supplies company Firmo has indicated that it aims to buy Staples’ business operations in Portugal.

Firmo announced the expected purchase through the Portuguese competition authority (Autoridade da Concorrência – AdC) published on Wednesday.
The purchase amount for Staples has not been revealed.
Until now, Staples has been majority controlled by the Cerberus fund since 2017. At the end of March the sale of its business units in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria and Poland was announced.
At the same time the intention to sell off its Portuguese operation of shops selling office and stationery materials (Staples).
It also announced that it would offload shops in the Benelux and Finland. At the time the company revealed it had “various interested parties”.
The sales process will now have to be given the green light by the competition authority. “The operation consists of the acquisition by Firmo, Papéis e Papelarias, S.A. for the exclusive control of Staples Portugal – Office Equipment S.A., “Staples” and that over the next 10 days may receive “observations about the operation in question” before a final decision on the deal can be given by the AdC.