Cerberus Capital Management to Sell Staples in Portugal

25 March 2021

The US-based fund manager Cerberus will sell Staples’ business in Portugal in the coming months.

Staples, a chain of office supply and stationery shops with a network of more than thirty shops and about 700 employees in Portugal, announced the transaction. Neither the name of the buyers nor the agreed-upon sales price were revealed.

According to the Jornal de Negócios, Staples has agreed to sell its business units in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria and Poland. The announcement comes after it sold its distribution centres in the UK and divested its international contracts area earlier this year. Staples revealed that it intends to divest its remaining business units in Europe (in Portugal, Benelux and Finland) “in the coming months,” noting that it has several interested parties.

Since 2017, Staples, which has a network of 33 shops in Portugal with approximately 700 employees, has had Cerberus as its majority shareholder.

According to Negócios, Dolph Westerbos, CEO of Staples, said that “in recent years we have created a better business and a strong corporate culture with the continued support of our shareholder Cerberus. With the successful completion of our transformation, now is the right time for our shareholder to exit.”

Mr Westerbos added, “I am pleased that we have secured solid futures for our business units and am proud that our people and customers will be an asset to the large strategic ‘players’ they will join.”

Following the entry of Cerberus Capital Management, Staples has been divesting in Europe. In 2019 it sold its business units in France, Spain and Italy to France’s Raja, a company linked to the packaging sector.

Cerberus is an American private equity firm based in New York. The firm has a significant presence in Portugal, particularly in the real estate sector and others.

Original Story: Jornal de Negócios – Pedro Curvelo

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