Milan, Sept. 21 - Esselunga, a leading Italian supermarket chain with annual sales of about 5 billion euros ($7.06 billion), is not currently for sale, its 81-year-old founder said, admitting he had lied earlier when he said it was on the block.
Bernardo Caprotti told Finanza & Mercati newspaper this week that "Esselunga is for sale" -- comments which were confirmed by a spokesman to Reuters.
"I screwed you, I am sorry, but I didn't want to give away the reasons for the press conference," Caprotti said on Friday.
Capriotti, holding his first-ever news conference, to launch a book attacking rival cooperative supermarkets, said any future sale or initial public offering remained options, however.
"With regards to a sale, you cannot say 'yes' or 'no', it is not a question of money but of who would buy it," Caprotti told more than 100 reporters and photographers packed into a conference room hoping to hear further details of a sale.
Italian newspapers have suggested both Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Britain's Tesco Plc as possible buyers, but Caprotti said Wal-Mart was the "antithesis" of Esselunga, and also that he would "absolutely" not sell the chain to Tesco.
"I would say in Italy -- in the world -- there are only three or four groups that could take this company and keep its spirit," Caprotti said, but he would not be drawn on names.
Asked whether he would sell to Germany's second-largest food retailer, Rewe Group, which owns Italy's Standa supermarket chain, Caprotti was evasive.
"That's a difficult question," he said.
Rewe was not immediately available for comment.
Caprotti's book, "The Scythe and the Trolley", plays on the Italian for the communist hammer and sickle emblem and takes aim at Italy's cooperative supermarkets, saying they plan to wipe out all competition.
Caprotti said Brussels was looking at the issue. The European Commission said it was unaware of any complaint. The commission only has authority over cross-border issues and the retailers concerned are all Italian.