VIENNA (Reuters) - The sale of Austrian home-improvements store chain BauMax is under way, with a deadline for binding offers ending on Dec. 18, Austrian magazine News said on Thursday, citing documents from investment bank Mediobanca.
BauMax, which had overextended itself with a push into Eastern Europe and Turkey, had said in late November that there was no sale process. It was not immediately available for comment.
The sale focuses on BauMax core countries Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where it generates 70 percent, or 745 million euros (£585.5 million), of its revenues, News said.
Any deal would need a green light from BauMax's creditor banks, including Raiffeisen (VI:RBIV), Erste Group (VI:ERST) and Bank Austria (MI:CRDI).
News put the cost for banks at a worst-case 400 million euros should BauMax's loans go bad, and quoted an "expert involved" in the process as saying a "realistic" writedown was more toward 250-270 million.
(Reporting By Angelika Gruber, Writing by Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Michael Shields)