Brazilian retail veteran Michael Klein and his family on Friday gained control of appliance retailer Via Varejo SA from retailer GPA SA in an auction.
Klein bought a smaller than anticipated additional stake in the company, but other investors pitched in and GPA ended by selling its entire stake at a higher than expected price.
In a statement, Klein said he had bought a 1.6% stake in Via Varejo in an auction on the Sao Paulo stock exchange on Friday. Combined with its previous stake of 25.4%, the Klein family will own 27%, making it the retailer's largest shareholder.
GPA, which has wanted to exit the investment, said it sold its full 36% for 4.90 reais per share, raising a total of 2.3 billion reais ($590 million).
This was above the 4.75 reais per share that had been anticipated, based on a June 12 filing. Klein, who market watchers had expected to spend up to 500 million reais in the auction, in the end spent only 101 million reais ($26 million). The rest of GPA's stake was acquired by financial investors, mainly mutual funds, advised by XP Investments. "It's a big challenge ahead, but we will push for better outcomes as our family has always done," Klein said in a statement.