Aéroports de Paris and Aelia plan to merge Duty Free Paris and Société de Distribution Aéroport

On 23 March 2011, Aelia - a company of the Lagardère Services group - submitted an offer for the possible acquisition of all of the shares The Nuance Group owns in Duty Free Paris, a joint venture company equally owned by Aéroports de Paris and The Nuance Group.

Duty Free Paris operates fashion and accessories retail outlets at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly airports.

In consideration for the acquisition, Aéroports de Paris and The Nuance Group have granted Aelia negotiation exclusivity for a period of two months, renewable once, during which Aelia, The Nuance Group and Aéroports de Paris will negotiate the terms of this possible acquisition.

Project to merge Duty Free Paris and Société de Distribution Aéroportuaire

If this project is carried through, Aéroports de Paris and Aelia will jointly own two companies operating retail outlets in airports. In this context, Aéroports de Paris and Aelia have started discussions in order to group their activities together in a single entity - the Société de Distribution Aéroportuaire. At the same time, Aelia plans to include in this structure its fashion and accessories activities operated by its fully-owned subsidiary Duty Free Associates.

This operation, would allow to pool resources, to work on common development projects and on opportunities to create additional sales and to generate synergies on costs. Subject to prior approval by the competition authorities, implementation of the project could be started as early as this summer.

Société de Distribution Aéroportuaire would then operate 115 outlets across all Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly terminals, including 70 dedicated to core business and 45 dedicated to fashion and accessories.

Pierre Graff, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Aéroports de Paris, said:

"The merger project between Société de Distribution Aéroportuaire and Duty Free Paris is a new milestone in the collaboration between Aéroports de Paris and Lagardère Services. Following on the establishment of a first joint venture in alcohol/tobacco/cosmetics and gastronomy activities, our two companies are deepening their partnership trough fashion and accessories activities, which are very popular among our passengers. We are convinced that this partnership will allow us to reach our ambition to become the referent of travel retail in Europe and to provide our customers with a unique experience."

Jean-Baptiste Morin, Chairman of Aelia, said:

"This project between Société de Distribution Aéroportuaire and Duty Free Paris marks a new step in the development of the very successful cooperation between Aéroports de Paris and Lagardère Services to which Aelia belongs. This is a major development for our Group in the fashion and accessories segment that confirms the relevance of multi-category development strategy in travel retail."