Kaufland Romania pays back EUR 25 mln to its shareholders

Kaufland Romania, the country’s biggest retailer by sales, will return EUR 25 million from its share capital to its German shareholders, according to a shareholders’ decision. The company’s share capital is bigger than the resources the company needs for its operations, was the motivation, reports local Profit.ro. After this operation, Kaufland Romania’s share capital will be of some EUR 438 million. The share capital restitution to shareholders is a more convenient alternative to dividends, as the money paid back to the shareholders are not taxed whereas dividends are currently taxed with a rate of 16%. Kaufland Romania is part of German group Schwartz, which also controls the discount supermarket network Lidl. The company had sales of EUR 1.8 billion and a net profit of almost EUR 93 million, in 2014. It has a network of 105 discount hypermarkets and 14,300 employees. Kaufland has opened three new stores since the beginning of this year, in Constanta, Sibiu, and Timisoara, and plans to open two more by the end of this year, in Arad and Braila. editor@romania-insider.com