The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor CITY Markets' weekend 'Blow Out' sale was designed to clear all existing inventory prior to the supermarket chain's purchase, its current majority owner revealing a deal could close "within two weeks" and that it would retain a minority stake. Mark Finlayson, principal of current 78 per cent majority shareholder, Trans-Island Traders, told Tribune Business that he was now negotiating with two separate international groups over the purchase of a majority stake in the struggling five-store City Markets chain. Adding that the Finlayson family would "remain in" as equity investors regardless of who acquired majority control, Mr Finlayson confirmed to this newspaper that the three-day 'Cash and Carry Blow Out' sale, offering items up to 70 per cent off, was designed to clear all existing inventory in preparation for new management/controlling investors. "As we negotiate with these other people, they don't want our inventory," he explained to Tribune Business. "We've got to sell down our own existing inventory, as both parties carry their own brands. "We've been dealing with wholesalers in the US that they will not be using. Our private labels, they're not interested in those at all, so we've got to get rid of those." And he added: "Time is of the essence, and one party in particular we're favouring over the other. I suspect that in the next two weeks we'll be done, closing and everything [on a deal]." Mr Finlayson declined to name the two international groups that he, on behalf of Trans-Island Traders and his family, he is negotiating with. Based on his comments, it appears that they have some previous experience in the food retailing business, although this is by no means certain. However, Mr Finlayson did disclose to Tribune Business that the two proposals made to Trans-Island Traders are structured differently, although both ensure his family retains a minority equity interest in whatever City Markets goes forward. "There are two proposals, one where we become a shareholder in their company, so in that sense we're in, and the other is where for particular supermarkets there will be a joint venture between us and another party," he told this newspaper. "We're in either way - one as a shareholder in the company taking over, and the other is a Heineken-type deal. We're moving very, very quickly, and hopefully by Friday next [this] week I'll have something concrete to give you. "This is the first day I feel like this is going to come out in a positive way. I've spent along time on the phone with parties overseas who are very interested." Several food retailing sources have expressed scepticism over whether Mr Finlayson and City Markets would be able to attract any interest from overseas grocery retailing chains, but his comments certainly seem to contradict this. And, although he declined to comment when questioned on this issue, Tribune Business received further confirmation that BISX-listed food retail group, AML Foods, was indeed the local 'party' City Markets was talking to in hopes of cutting a deal. This newspaper was told by sources close to developments that AML Foods and the Finlaysons were "too far apart" in their respective valuations of the City Markets business to make any transaction feasible, and talks never really went past the proverbial 'first base'. AML Foods and City Markets have danced around each other for 18 months, but never reached the altar as a couple. AML Foods looked at acquiring City Markets when it was approached by the former BSL Holdings ownership in summer 2010, but ultimately dropped out and the chain was purchased by the Finlayson family in November that year. The roles were reversed in January 2011, when Mr Finlayson and Trans-Island launched what in some circles was seen as a 'hostile takeover bid' for 51 per cent majority control of AML Foods. That, again, never really gathered steam and was eventually dropped. Then came the latest courtship amid City Markets' continuing financial struggles and heavy losses, and AML Foods' search for expansion opportunities. In an interview with Tribune Business last month, Mr Finlayson said his family's focus was on saving City Markets' remaining 450 jobs, but warned the company "may not survive in its present form". Hinting that some potential purchasers were more interested in certain store locations than others, and that City Markets may be broken up, Mr Finlayson said he was hoping the family could agree a deal "as soon as we can". The ailing supermarket chain is continuing to lose money, he confirmed, forcing the Finlaysons to subsidise it from their own financial resources to keep it afloat. Sitting on a multi-million dollar cash pile after Heineken paid an estimated $125 million to buy out the 50 per cent stake that their Associated Bahamian Distillers and Brewers (ABDAB) vehicle held in Commonwealth Brewery/Burns House, the Finlayson family acquired the majority 78 per cent stake in City Markets from the BSL Holdings group in early November 2010 for the princely sum of $1. The supermarket chain was already struggling, weighed down by around $28 million worth of net losses rung-up by the disastrous four-year BSL Holdings ownership, and without the Finlayson deal it is likely City Markets would have gone under back then. However, the family has failed to turn the supermarket chain - one of the Bahamas' leading business brand names for decades - around despite investing $19 million in it to-date. City Markets' operating parent suffered a $16.587 million net loss for its 2011 financial year that closed at end-June last year, a sum more than double the previous year's, prior to $15.453 million in 'extraordinary income' cutting the bottom line's red ink to $1.135 million. The $16.587 million net loss (before extraordinary items) is some 124 per cent ahead of the $7.808 million in red ink incurred during the final year of the ill-fated BSL Holdings reign. Most of that $16.587 million net loss came under the Finlaysons' ownership. Apart from the figures, City Markets has also had to contend with well-publicised difficulties when it came to meeting payments to Bahamian and foreign suppliers, the Police Staff Association and, more recently, the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC).