As reported earlier, French travel retail giant Aelia has formally confirmed that it has acquired Eitzen Maritime Services? (EMS) duty free retail business in Spain and Croatia, which includes retail outlets at the cruise terminals

of Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca and Valencia in Spain, and Dubrovnik in Croatia.

However, the company has pointed out that some reports which suggest that it has agreed to acquire the port retail business at Portim?o in Portugal are not accurate, although it adds that Aelia may (or may not) exercise an option to acquire this business in future.

The retailer says that the business that is being acquired will be operated by Aelia Retail Espa?a, a new joint venture between Aelia Group and its Spanish sister company SGEL, operator of the Relay news and gifts chain, among other concepts, in airports and railway stations across the country. Both are subsidiaries of the parent Lagard?re Services group.

Commenting on the acquisition, Aelia Chairman and CEO Jean-Baptiste Morin said: ?This is a very interesting move for us and I would like to thank EMS for their professionalism and our own teams for their hard work making it happen. We see real potential in this business and are confident we can grow sales in each location. We are especially delighted to make our debut in Spain, together with our friends and colleagues at SGEL, whose knowledge of the market is a real asset to the partnership.?

Aelia adds that it expects to complete the formalities relating to the deal – including obtaining approvals from relevant competition authorities – by the end of July. It says this should allow the retailer to begin operations in time for the beginning of the peak holiday season.