// Iceland comes to an agreement with Brait over the purchase of a stake
// Iceland founder and CEO bought out the South African conglomerate’s 63% stake in the frozen food retailer for £115m
Iceland founder Malcolm Walker has reportedly bagged a discount deal with investment holding company Brait.
Brait has agreed to cut the sum it receives from the sale of Iceland in return for early payment, Sky News reported.
The deal consists of a £50 million buyout which comes with millions of pounds cut from the purchase price.
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Walker agreed with Brait to pay the remaining two instalments of a £115 million fee ahead of schedule.
Brait said it would sell its 63 per cent stake in Iceland to Walker, and Iceland chief executive, Tarsem Dhaliwal back in June.
The executives bought out the South African conglomerate’s 63 per cent stake in the frozen food specialist for £115 million to form a newly-established company Iceland Foods.
The deal meant the first tranche of £60 million was paid at the time, with £26.9 million due at the end of July next year, and £28.1 million a year later.
Meanwhile, Brait is eyeing an early payment of the outstanding £50 million as it seeks to retain value from its other retail asset, New Look.
Iceland operates around 1000 stores across the UK.
In July, the frozen food chain blamed its widening losses on the ongoing uncertainty around Brexit and the December general election.
It recorded pre-tax losses of £71.8 million for the year to the end of March.
Iceland also said it had £5 million of income owing to the rising price of packaging waste recovery notes – as a result, adjusted EBITDA fell to £133 million.
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