Reuters – Hedge fund shareholders Centaurus Capital and Paulson & Co., which has put pressure on Ahold to sell its U.S. assets, met the Dutch retailer earlier this week, a spokesman for the fundssaid on Wednesday. “I can confirm that they met on Monday. It was an open dialogue such as companies have with major shareholders,” the spokesman said. He declined to provide details.
Earlier this month, Ahold, the world’s fourth-biggest food-retail and foodservice group by sales, said it would sell its U.S. Foodservice business, bowing to pressure from the hedge funds which together hold a 6.4 percent stake.
The funds also want the retailer, which owns the Netherlands’ biggest supermarket chain but generates 74 percent of its turnover in the United States, to sell its sizeable U.S. food-retail business.
