PNSA in the deal through which Auchan shall operate 400 MyAuchan stores within the OMV Petrom petrol filling stations

PNSA advised Auchan Retail Romania in respect of the takeover of the entire chain (more than 400 units) of OMV Petrom petrol filling stations in view of converting them into MyAuchan proximity stores and their further non-petrol retail operation. This is the biggest project ever of a Romanian petrol retailer to outsource the non-petrol products retail activity in favor of a top retail player on the Romanian market.

Three years after OMV Petrom and Auchan Retail Romania launched a pilot project involving 17 petrol filling stations and following the clearance issued in summer 2019 by the Romanian Competition Council for the big bang whole network conversion, proximity stores MyAuchan will reach more than 250 locations in Romania for the benefit of two well-known brands’ clients.

PNSA has started to provide legal advice in the project ever since 2016 and covered the structuring, preparation and negotiation of the transaction documentation pertaining to both the pilot and final projects, assistance in the process of obtaining the competition clearance, commercial and GDPR specific advice including as regards the various business relationship with various suppliers of goods and services.

PNSA team led by Bogdan C. Stoica (Partner) has benefited of specialised advice from the competition team - Mihaela Ion (Partner), Laura Ambrozie (Managing Associate) and Vanessa Nistor (Senior Associate) and other practices areas - Irina Ivanciu (Partner/Commercial), Luana Dragomirescu (Managing Associate/GDPR), Ioana Cazacu (Managing Associate/Employment), Claudia Salomia/Corporate-Commercial).

Auchan Retail Romania has currently a portfolio of 33 hypermarkets and 5 supermarkets Auchan and a network of 26 MyAuchan proximity stores. With approximately 10,000 employees and a turnover of over 1.2 billion euros, Auchan is one of the top retailers in Romania.