United States

: Ahold, best known in Europe as owning the Albert Heijn chain of supermarkets in the Netherlands, is operator of Stop&Shop and Giant stores in the United States, while Delhaize owns the Food Lion and Hannaford chains, according to Euro News. The Dutch group said it would pay 4.75 shares for every Delhaize share, valuing Delhaize at about 9.3 billion euros , or 90 euros a share, based on closing prices on Tuesday. In a joint statement, the two companies said Ahold would have a 61 percent stake in the merged entity, which will have 54.1 billion euros in sales, more than 6,500 stores worldwide and complementary operations in the United States and Benelux. However, Ahold said it would return 1 billion euros to its shareholders with a special dividend and reverse stock split prior to the merger. The deal looks good for Ahold shareholders, they are getting 1 billion euros in cash and paying only a 27 percent premium for Delhaize, well below some of the initial estimates, said Bernstein analyst Bruno Monteyne. Ahold shares were 2 percent higher at 19.34 euros by 0808 GMT on Wednesday, valuing the group at 17.3 billion euros, while Delhaize was off 4.3 percent at 84 euros, giving the Belgian company a market value of 8.7 billion euros. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.