Office Depot Europe to sell its Spanish contract business to strategic buyer Lyreco

- Business unit ranks among the top 3 players in the Spanish market

- Strategic buyer Lyreco to continue developing the business

- Sale as part of ongoing transformation of Office Depot Europe

Munich/Venlo, July 24, 2020 - Office Depot Europe, a portfolio company of AURELIUS Equity Opportunities SE & Co. KGaA (ISIN: DE000A0JK2A8) has agreed to sell its Spanish contract business unit to strategic buyer Lyreco, a leading provider of office supplies headquartered in Marly, France.

The contract business unit ranks among the leading players in the Spanish market, serving small, medium and large international and national blue chip companies from various industries. The sale comes after a successful realignment of the Spanish contract business since the group was acquired by AURELIUS in January 2017. Over the last three years, the assortment was expanded away from what was a stationary focus to end-to-end workspace solutions and product offerings including furniture key turn projects and managed print services. Lyreco will integrate this business with its existing Spanish presence and continue to develop the business ensuring best-in-class service levels.

The sale of the Spanish contract business unit is part of the ongoing transformation of Office Depot Europe. It is the third exit of an Office Depot business to complete in the past nine months. Office Depot Europe sold its Central Eastern European business in November 2019 and its Nordic division in May 2020. The exit of Office Depot's Spanish contract business follows the same strategic rationale, freeing resources to allow Office Depot Europe to focus on its core European ecommerce centric business activities.
 

ABOUT AURELIUS
AURELIUS Group is a pan-European investment group with offices in Munich, London, Stockholm, Madrid and Amsterdam. Since it was founded in 2006, AURELIUS has grown from a local turnaround investor to an international multi-asset manager.

AURELIUS Equity Opportunities SE & Co. KGaA (ISIN: DE000A0JK2A8, ticker symbol: AR4) is the listed entity within AURELIUS Group and focuses on investing in mid-market corporate carve-outs and platform build-ups in a broad range of industries. With a team of approximately 100 in-house operations experts, AURELIUS actively supports its portfolio companies in their long-term development. AURELIUS Equity Opportunities currently has 22 portfolio companies located across Europe which employ around 15,000 people and generate annual revenues of approx. EUR 3.4 billion. The shares of AURELIUS Equity Opportunities are traded on all German stock exchanges.

AURELIUS Group also operates in the areas of growth capital, real estate opportunities and debt. AURELIUS Growth Capital invests in leveraged buyouts usually in succession or corporate spin-off situations. AURELIUS Real Estate Opportunities focuses on real estate investments, the value of which can be increased in the long-term by means of active management. AURELIUS Finance Company is an alternative direct lender, focused on providing flexible debt solutions to small and mid-market firms across Europe.

With its group charity AURELIUS Refugee Initiative e.V., AURELIUS provides comprehensive support for refugees on their way towards a better life.

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