Extreme Digital goes international and expands its services

Budapest, 11 November 2015. The listed European household goods and general merchandiser Steinhoff International Holdings intends to invest in and increase the capital of Extreme Digital. The transaction is subject to competition approval. If approved, this would allow Extreme Digital to expand its services and strengthen its presence in other markets. The Hungarian e-commerce company will continue to be managed by its two founders, Balázs Várkonyi and Gyula Kelemen.

Hungary’s biggest online store Extreme Digital reached the most important milestone of its 14 years of operation: The listed group Steinhoff International Holdings intends to invest and acquire the majority of the Hungarian enterprise’s shares. Steinhoff International is the largest listed household goods retailer in Europe, and is also invested in well-known brands such as kika furniture stores and the general merchandise retailer Pepco, which entered the Hungarian market earlier this year.

Due to the new investor, Extreme Digital’s product portfolio will expand significantly in the next few days: customers can even buy furniture from www.edigital.hu on Black Friday, which will be held this year on 20th November. According to the company’s market analysis the Hungarian online sale of home furnishing products will increase significantly over the next few years.

Since we founded Extreme Digital in 2001 it has been growing continuously. We were the first among domestic online retailers who opened a showroom in a popular shopping center of Budapest. Later, with a significant investment, we implemented a system which shows the state of our inventory in real time for the customers – this advanced background system was essential to the foreign expansion. In order to grow larger we needed to involve a strategic partner. They support us in strengthening our position with our knowledge and experiences in the international market. We remain in charge of the strategy of Extreme Digital and due to the proposed investment of Steinhoff International we now have opportunities for the regional and product expansion, which were not available for us in the pastsaid Balázs Várkonyi, CEO of Extreme Digital.

Extreme Digital will continue to be managed by the current owners and founders, Gyula Kelemen and Balázs Várkonyi, and Steinhoff International will utilize Extreme Digital’s market leading e-commerce experiences for the group’s other companies.

This proposed transaction with the Steinhoff Group does not only entail the investment in the equity of Extreme Digital, but also an increase in the capital of Extreme Digital. Due to the investment, the number of Extreme Digital’s stores and employees will increase as the company is planning to expand in Europe. Extreme Digital aims to conquer the neighboring countries with its successful hybrid business model of jointly operating online and offline stores.

We warmly welcome Extreme Digital into the Steinhoff family. The market-leading online retailer and its founders perfectly fit to our international omni-channel strategy and we are looking forward to jointly expanding our product and service offerings in the important Central and Eastern European regionsaid Mariza Nel, Corporate Services Director of Steinhoff International.

ACXIT Capital Partners acted as financial adviser to Extreme Digital and its founders.

About Extreme Digital

Extreme Digital is a significant player of the Hungarian e-commerce market with the biggest turnover, revealed from GKI Digital analysis conducted in July, 2015. The company was the best for the fifth time on the “Country’s best shop” competition: Extreme Digital became the most popular consumer electronics webshop of 2015. Extreme Digital was founded in 2001, operates 13 shops nation-wide beside its popular webshop. Slovak, Romanian, Croatian and Slovenian users can also buy online from Extreme Digital. (www.edigital.hu)

About Steinhoff International

Steinhoff is an integrated retailer that retails, sources and manufactures household goods and general merchandise in Europe, Africa and Australasia. Retail operations are positioned towards price conscious (value) consumer segments, providing them with affordable products through a vertically integrated supply chain.

Steinhoff’s integrated retail divisions comprise of:

  • Household goods (furniture and homeware retail businesses);
  • General Merchandise (Pepkor) focusing on clothing and footwear, accessories and homeware;
  • Automotive dealerships in South Africa which provide a broad range of new and pre-owned vehicles, parts, insurance, accessories, services and car rental.

 (www.steinhoffinternational.com)

About ACXIT

ACXIT Capital Partners is a leading independent corporate finance and investment advisory firm for mid-market clients and entrepreneurs in Europe and beyond. Since 1998, ACXIT offers its clients comprehensive corporate finance advisory services including M&A and capital markets advisory as well as restructuring, equity/debt and strategic advisory. As an independent, privately owned firm we maintain offices and representations in Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Leipzig, Zurich, Hong Kong and New York, as well as strong alliances in France, China and India. (www.acxit.com)

 

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