OVS foreign sales to more than double with Charles Vögele shop conversion

A planned conversion of shops belonging to Swiss retailer ​ Holding that OVS is the process of acquiring will more than double its share of foreign sales, the chief executive of the Italian retail chain said on Thursday.

The Sempione Retail consortium - of which OVS owns 35 percent with an option to buy a further 44.5 percent - on Thursday announced it had secured 82.6 percent of Charles Vögele through a tender offer launched after the $56 million deal agreed last September.

OVS CEO Stefano Beraldo said Sempione Retail was planning to delist the Swiss group.

"(Foreign sales) will (increase) by about 500 million euros, to more that 25 per cent of our total revenue," he told Reuters on the sideline of a conference.

The Italian group currently makes less than 10 percent of its revenues from sales abroad.

The Charles Vögele shops to be rebranded as OVS are mainly in Austria and Switzerland, but also in Slovenia and Hungary, and the process will be completed within the next 12 months, Beraldo said.