X5 Retail, Russia's largest supermarket chain by revenue, has applied to the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) to acquire retailer Kopeika and its subsidiaries, the FAS said on Friday.
"The application will be considered within a legal period," the service said in a statement.
Russia's competition law says the application should be considered within 30 days from the day it was received, while the review duration can be extended by a maximum of two months.
X5 Retail Group Chief Executive Lev Khasis said the application was 'a technicality', necessary for probable merger negotiations.
In October 2009, the FAS approved X5's application to acquire the Paterson supermarket chain within less than a month, and in December 2009, X5 closed a $189.5 million merger deal with Paterson owners, brothers Alexei and Konstantin Mauergauz.
X5 has also paid off the retailer's $85 million net debt. X5 began to rebrand the acquired stores after the merger, transforming 53 retailers into Perekryostok stores and 22 into Pyatyorochka discounters.
Kopeika's chief financial officer Alexander Tarasov said that the company knew X5 had applied to the FAS, and that the management was searching for an opportunity to raise the company's shareholder value to its maximum level.
In early summer Kopeika, which is owned by Uralsib bank head Nikolai Tsvetkov, valued itself at 50 billion rubles ahead of a possible Initial Public Offering in autumn.
Analysts think X5 will considerably increase its share of the Moscow market after acquiring Kopeika.
Earlier media reports suggested that the U.S. supermarket chain Wal-Mart, which has no stores in Russia, was thinking of purchasing Kopeika.
MOSCOW, July 23 (RIA Novosti)
